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AMERICAN FOOTBALL 



BY 



WALTER CAMP 



NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION 










NEW YORK 

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

1896 



Hll 



l4^ 



Gr\/^5\ 



Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers. 
Copyright, 1S93, by Harper & Brothers. 
Copyright, 1894, by Harper & Brothers. 
Copyright, 1895, by Harper & Brothers. 
Copyright, 1896, by Harper & Brothers. 

.'/// rights reserved. 



PREFACE 

The progress of the sport of football in 
this country, and a corresponding growth of 
inquiry as to the methods adopted by expe- 
rienced teams, have prompted the publica- 
tion of an enlarged edition of this book. 
Should any of the suggestions herein con- 
tained conduce to the further popularity of 
the game, the object of the writer will be 
attained. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Early American Football .... i 
English and American Rugby . . 9 

End Rusher 35 

The Tackle . 49 

The Guard 65 

The Centre, or Snap-back . . .79 

The Quarter-back 91 

The Half-back and Back . . . .103 

Signals 129 

Training 145 

A Chapter for Spectators . . .179 
Interference and Wedge Play . .191 
Appendix : 

Team Play 217 

The Effect of the Changes in 

Rules 252 

Alterations of 1896 267 

Records Since the Introduction 
OF Rugby Game 278 



EARLY AMERICAN FOOTBALL 



EARLY AMERICAN FOOTBALL 



Football at American colleges runs 
back beyond the memory of the oldest 
living graduate. But the kind of foot- 
ball that was played back in the '40's 
was of such a crude character that it is 
hardly worthy of comment. The only 
interest that attaches to it lies in the 
fact that it was undoubtedly an attempt 
stimulated by English ancestry to im- 
plant a sport which has now grown to 
remarkable prominence. In those early 
days, however, it served more as an ex- 
cuse for a rush between the sophomores 
and the freshmen. Outside of the uni- 



4 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

ver-sities there was no football, if one 
may except a New England fashion of 
kicking a substitute made of a pig's 
bladder in skylarking fashion after the 
Thanksgiving dinner. 

The football of the early college days 
gave place to rushes between the classes 
which were practically the same as the 
football game of that day, except that 
the ball was not used. These rushes, 
at first governed by no laws or rules, 
took on a form of organization in the 
'6o's, and soon after that the sport was 
revived, but separate from class organi- 
zations. There was no game about it 
during the '6o's, but a ball was kicked 
about, and more or less amusement de- 
rived from it. In the early '/O's, how- 
ever, thanks to the inspiration of one or 
two men at the various colleges — one 
in particular, a former Rugby boy — the 
game was taken up in earnest, and asso- 



EARLY AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 5 

ciations organized at several of the col- 
leges. In 1872 Columbia played a match 
with Yale on the i6th of November. 
There were twenty men on a side, and 
the game was nearer the English Asso- 
ciation than the English Rugby. The 
costumes of the day were long trousers 
and jerseys. The rules were simple, and 
forbade any one's picking up, carrying, 
or throwing the ball in any part of the 
field. There were no '^ off " and "on 
side " rules, and goals were made by 
sending the ball under the cross-bar in- 
stead of over it. Fouls were penalized 
by making the player who had com- 
mitted the foul toss the ball straight up 
in the air from the place where the foul 
occurred, and it was unfair to touch the 
ball until it struck the ground. This 
particular rule gave rise later to a good 
deal of skilful drop kicking, the men 
kicking the ball just as it touched the 



6 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

ground. Although the game was played 
with twenty men, when a man was dis- 
abled, instead of a substitute going on 
in his place, a man from the other side 
was dropped off. This was a very sen- 
sible rule, for in those days it was almost 
impossible to get men to try for a team ; 
the captain being selected more on ac- 
count of his popularity and ability to 
get men out to the field than for any 
other reason. In 1873, on the i8th of 
October, a convention was held in New 
York to frame a code of rules to gov- 
ern intercollegiate football. Columbia, 
Princeton, Rutgers, and Yale were rep- 
resented. That year Princeton played a 
game at New Haven with Yale and de- 
feated the New Haven men. Rutgers 
and Yale had a match, and Yale also 
played an Eton eleven, or rather an 
eleven formed of eleven Englishmen 
captained by Allen, of Eton. This 



EARLY AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 7 

game was played at New Haven, Yale 
winning by two goals to one. It was 
not until 1875, however, that football 
really began its present career of interest 
in American colleges, when Harvard, 
who had been playing matches in the 
previous year with Canadian teams 
under the Rugby Union rules, in a con- 
ference with Yale agreed upon certain 
compromise rules between the then ex- 
isting American college game and the 
Rugby Union. A game was played 
under these rules. Harvard defeating 
Yale by four goals and two touch-downs 
to nothing. The principal result of the 
game, however, was a thorough dissat- 
isfaction with the compromise set of 
rules, and a determination on the part 
of both colleges to come to an adop- 
tion of the regular Rugby Union rules. 
With the adoption of the Rugby Union 
rules went out the fashions that were 



5 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

existing in the American game of 
shouldering, or ^'butting" as it was 
called, and also the fashion of batting 
the ball with the hand or fist. This 
latter had become quite an art at one 
time, and men were accustomed to bat 
the ball in this way nearly as far as the 
present players kick the Rugby ball. 
The ball that was used in these old days 
was a round black rubber one, and it was 
" babied " with the hands a great deal. 
It is rather strange that this babying 
with the hands was adopted after many 
trials to acquire the knack of babying 
with the feet — the '' dribbling" of Eng- 
lish Association play. 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RUGBY 



AMERICAN FOOTBALL 



Rugby football — for it is from the 
Rugby Union Rules that our American 
Intercollegiate game was derived — dates 
its present era of popularity from the 
formation in England, in 1871, of a 
union of some score of clubs. Nearly 
ten years before this there had been 
an attempt made to unite the vari- 
ous diverging football factions under a 
common set of laws ; but this proved a 
failure, and the styles of play became 
farther and farther apart. Of the Asso- 
ciation game one can say but little as 
regards its American following. It is 



12 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

quite extensively played in this coun- 
try, but more by those who have them- 
selves played it in Great Britain than 
by native-born Americans. Its popu- 
larity is extending, and at some day it 
will very likely become as well under- 
stood in this country as the derived 
Rugby is to-day. Its essential charac- 
teristic is, that it is played with the feet, 
in distinction from the Rugby, in which 
the ball may be carried in the hands. 

To revert to the Rugby Union. 
Years before the formation of this as- 
sociation the game was played by sides 
almost unlimited in numbers. One of 
the favorite school matches was " Sixth 
form against all the rest of the school." 
Twenty on a side, however, became the 
ruling number ; but this was, after a 
time, replaced by fifteens, as the days 
of twenties proved only shoving match- 
es. With the reduction in numbers 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RUGBY. 13 

came increased running and an added 
interest. This change to fifteens was 
made in 1877, at the request of Scot- 
land. At once there followed a more 
open style of play, and before long short 
passing became common. In 1882 the 
Oxford team instituted the long low 
pass to the open, and by the use of 
it remained undefeated for three sea- 
sons. 

After the decrease to fifteen men the 
number of three-quarter-backs, who real- 
ly represent our American half-backs, 
was increased from one to two, and two 
full-backs were played. A little later 
British captains put another full-back 
up into the three-quarter line, playing 
with only one full-back. 

The Englishmen also play two men 
whom they call half-backs, but whose 
duties are like those of our quarter-back, 
for they seize the ball when it comes out 



14 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

of the scrimmage and pass it to a three- 
quarter for a run. 

Nine men is the usual number for an 
EngHsh rush Hne, although a captain will 
sometimes take his ninth rusher back as 
a fourth three-quarter-back. There is 
much discussion as to when this should 
be done. The captain selects his men 
much as we do in America, and he is 
generally himself a player of some posi- 
tion behind the line, centre three-quarter 
being preferred. The opening play in 
an English Rugby game is, as a rule, a 
high kick well followed up. If one will 
bear in mind that the half backs are, like 
our quarter, the ones to seize the ball 
when it emerges from a scrimmage and 
pass it to the three-quarters, he will gain 
some idea of the character of the English 
method. He should understand, howev^- 
er, that the English half-back is obliged 
to look out sharply for the ball, because 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RUGBY. 15 

it comes out by chance and at random, 
and not directly as in our game, where 
the quarter can usually expect to re- 
ceive the ball without trouble from the 
snap-back. 

The forwards in an English match 
endeavor, when a scrimmage occurs, by 
kicking and pushing to drive the ball in 
the direction of their opponents' goal 
line, and they become extremely expert 
in the use of their feet. There are two 
umpires, whose duty it is to make claims 
(which they do by raising their flags), 
and a referee, who allows or disallows 
these claims. The penalty for fouls, 
which was at first only a down, is now 
in many cases a free kick. 

The American game, it must be re- 
membered, came from the Rugby Union 
in 1875, and not from the Rugby Union 
of to-day, although the changes in the 
English game have been by no manner 



1 6 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

of means commensurate with thosemade 
on this side the water. Being bound by 
no traditions, and having seen no play, 
the American took the EngHsh rules for 
a starting-point, and almost immediately 
proceeded to add and subtract, according 
to what seemed his pressing needs. And 
they were many. A favored few, whose 
intercourse with Canadian players had 
given them some of the English ideas, 
were able to explain the knotty points 
to a small degree, but not enough to real- 
ly assist the mass of uninitiated play- 
ers to an understanding. Misinterpre- 
tations were so numerous as to render 
satisfactory rulings almost out of the 
question and explanatory legislation im- 
perative. In the autumn of 1876 the 
first game under Rugby rules between 
American colleges was played at New 
Haven, and before another was attempt- 
ed a convention had tried its hand at 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RUGBY. 1 7 

correcting the weak points, as they ap- 
peared to the minds of the legislators, 
in the Rugby Union Rules. 

The feature of the American game in 
distinction from the English is, just as 
it was within a year from the time of 
the adoption of the sport, the outlet of 
the scrimmage. 

In this lies the backbone to which the 
entire body of American football is at- 
tached. The English half-backs stand 
outside the scrimmage, and when the ball 
pops out it is their duty to seize it and 
pass it out to a three-quarter, who runs 
with it. The American quarter -back 
stands behind the scrimmage and gives 
a signal, immediately after which he 
knows the ball will come directly into 
his hands to be passed for a run or a 
kick. What is, therefore, in the English 
game a matter of considerable chance 
is " cut -and -dried " in the American 



l8 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

game ; and the element of chance being 
eliminated, opportunity is given for the 
display in the latter game of far more 
skill in the development of brilliant plays 
and carefully planned manoeuvres. 

The Americans started with the Eng- 
lish scrimmage, kicked at the ball, and 
pushed and scrambled for a season, un- 
til it was discovered that a very clever 
manifestation of the play was to let the 
opponents do the kicking — in fact, to 
leave an opening at the proper moment 
through which the ball would come, and 
a man a few feet behind this opening 
could always get the ball and pass it 
while the men who kicked it were still 
entangled in the scrimmage. After a 
little of this, no one was anxious to kick 
the ball through, and the rushers began 
to roll the ball sidewise along between 
the lines. Then almost immediately it 
was discovered that a man could snap 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RUGBY. 1 9 

the ball backwards with his toe, and the 
American outlet was installed. 

At first the play was crude in the ex- 
treme, but even in its earliest stages it 
proved distinctly more satisfactory to 
both player and spectator than the kick- 
ing and shoving which marked the Eng- 
lish method. 

The same man did not always snap 
the ball back as he does now, but any 
one of the rushers would do it upon oc- 
casion. The men did not preserve their 
relative positions in the line, and any 
one of the men behind the line would 
act as a quarter-back. Such a condition 
of affairs could not, however, last long 
where intercollegiate rivalry proved such 
an incentive to the perfection of play, 
and the positions of centre-rush or snap- 
back and quarter-back became the most 
distinctive of any upon the field. The 
centre-rush at that time was selected 



20 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

more for his agility, strange to say, than 
for his weight and strength ; but in case 
he was a hght man he was always flanked 
by two heavy guards. One season's play 
convinced all captains that the centre 
section of the forward line must be 
heavy, and if any light-weights were to 
be used among the rushers they should 
be near the wings. 

Quarter-back has, from the very out- 
set, been a position in which a small man 
can be used to great advantage. The half- 
backs and backs have usually been men 
of speed coupled with skill as kickers. 

The number originally adopted for 
matches in this country was eleven on 
a side. From some silly notion that it 
would increase the skill displayed, this 
number was changed to fifteen, although 
the Englishmen were moving in the 
other direction by reducing their num- 
bers from twenties to fifteens. A year 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RUGBY. 21 

or two of fifteen on a side drove the 
American players back to elevens, and 
there the number has rested. 

In the early days of the sport, while 
the players individually were coura- 
geous, the team play was cowardly ; that 
is, the tacticians were so taken up w^ith 
a study of defence — how to protect the 
goal — that the attack was weak. The 
direct result of this was to place too few 
men in the forward line and too many 
behind it. If to-day we were to revert 
to fifteen on a side, there is little doubt 
that we should throw eleven of them up 
into the rush line, and upon occasion 
even twelve. We now realize that the 
best defence does not consist in plan- 
ning how to stop a man after he has ob- 
tained a fair start towards the goal, but 
in throwing all available force up against 
him before he can get free of the for- 
ward line. The only way to effectively 



22 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

defeat this aggressive defence is by 
means of skilled kicking. It is possible 
with really good kickers to thrcfw a 
team playing in this fashion into dis- 
order by well-placed and long punting, 
followed up most sharply ; but it re- 
quires nerve and an unfailing accuracy 
of aim and judgment. The alterations 
in the playing rules, adopted lately, 
go far towards increasing the value of 
kicking, and make it imperative for a 
team to learn the kicking game. 

It is only a few years ago that It re- 
quired considerable argument to con- 
vince a captain that he could w^ith safe- 
ty send one of his halves up into the 
forward line when his opponents had 
the ball ; but it will take better kicking 
than is exhibited in most of the cham- 
pionship matches to frighten that half- 
back out of the line now. Even the 
quarter was wont upon occasion to drop 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RUGBY. 2^ 

back among the halves and assist them 
rather than the rushers. 

All the tendency for the last few 
years has been towards diminishing the 
number of men held in reserve, as it 
were, behind the line, and increasing by 
this means the crushing force by which 
the forwards might check either runner 
or kicker before his play could be exe- 
cuted. 

Should the English ever adopt an 
outlet for their scrimmage, making the 
play as direct as is ours, their men would 
gravitate to the forward line as rapidly 
as have our players. 

Next to the difference in scrimmage 
outlet between our game and that of 
the British stands a much more recent 
development, which we call interference. 
This is the assistance given to a runner 
by a companion or companions who go 
before him and break a path for him or 
shoulder off would-be tacklers. This, to 



24 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

the Englishman, would be the most de- 
testable kind of off-side play, and not 
tolerated for an instant upon any field 
in the United Kingdom. 

Even into this the Americans did not 
plunge suddenly, but rather little by lit- 
tle they stepped in, until it was neces- 
sary to do one of two things — either 
legalize what was being tacitly consent- 
ed to, or penalize it heavily. The re- 
sult was that it was legalized. With 
this concession, though, there went a 
certain condition which gained a meas- 
ure of confidence for the new ruling. 

To understand just how this state of 
affairs above mentioned came about one 
should know that, in the attempt to 
block opponents when the quarter-back 
was receiving and passing the ball, the 
forwards fell into the habit of extend- 
ing their arms horizontally from the 
shoulder, as by this method each man 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RUGBY. 2^ 

could cover more space. For a number 
of years this went on without detriment 
to the sport in any way, but after a 
time there was more or less complaint 
of holding in the line, and it was ruled 
that a man must not change his position 
after the ball was snapped, nor bend his 
arms about an opponent at such a time. 
Unfortunately the referee (for at this 
stage of the game there w^as no umpire) 
could not watch the ball and the play- 
ers with sufficient care to enforce this 
ruling, and the temper of the players 
suffered accordingly. It is always the 
case when a rule is not enforced un- 
flinchingly, no matter from what cause, 
that both sides suffer, and the tendency 
always is towards devising additional in- 
fringements. The additional infringe- 
ment in this instance was even worse 
than could have been foreseen ; for, not 
content with simply blocking or even 



26 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

holding an opponent until the quarter 
should have passed the ball in safety, 
the players in the forward line saw an 
opportunity for going a step farther, 
and actually began the practice of seiz- 
ing an opponent long after the ball had 
been played, and dragging him out of 
the way of the running half-back. In 
the thick of the rush line this was fre- 
quently possible without risk of discov- 
ery by the referee ; and, emboldened by 
successes of this kind, men would reach 
out even in the open, and drag back a 
struggling tackier just as he was about 
to lay his hands upon the runner. It 
was this state of affairs which brought 
up the question, " How much should a 
comrade be allowed to aid the run- 
ner .-^ 

American football legislators answered 
this question satisfactorily for the time, 
after long discussion, b}- determining 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RUGBY. 27 

that the runner might be assisted to 
any extent, provided the assistant did 
not use his hands or arms in performing 
this office. The first result of this was 
to lower the arms of the rushers when 
lined up, and, in spite of some forebod- 
ings, this proved really a benefit to the 
game. The second result has been to 
perfect a system of flanking a runner 
by companions who form almost an im- 
passable barrier at times to the would- 
be tacklers. But a new element came 
in after a while in the shape of what 
were called momentum - mass plays. 
The development of the interference 
phase became so great that it was 
the custom to group a body of men 
at some distance from the line — sev- 
eral yards — and then start this mass 
in motion before the ball was put in 
play. The opponents were unable to 
go forward to meet this mass, on 



28 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

account of the clanger of getting off- 
side, and so were taken at no incon- 
siderable disadvantage. This became 
such a dangerous as well as uninter- 
esting method of play in the minds of 
the public that legislation was begun 
against it. 

At the same time with mention of the 
solution of this problem, one should 
also call attention to a menace which 
threatened American football far more 
seriously than did this ; and that, too, 
at a time wdien the sport was by no 
means so strong in years or popularity 
as when this later difficulty arose. I re- 
fer to the " block game." This method 
of play, which consisted in a succession 
of " downs " without advance and with- 
out allowing the opponents any chance 
of securing possession of the ball, proved 
a means by which a weak team could 
avoid defeat. The whole object of the 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RUGBY. 2q 

match was thus frustrated, the game re- 
sulting in no score. 

To meet this difficulty a rule was in- 
troduced making it incumbent upon a 
side to advance the ball five yards or re- 
treat with it ten in three ^' downs." If 
this advance or retreat were not accom- 
plished, the ball went at once into the 
possession of the opponents. Never 
did a rule in any sport work so immedi- 
ate and satisfactory a reform as did this 
five-yard rule. 

Within the last few years, up to 1894, 
there had been no important change in 
the conduct of the American game, nor 
in the rules. Out of the above-men- 
tioned points of difference between it 
and the English game, there is only that 
of the methods of enforcing rules and 
determining differences. The English 
have a referee and two umpires, al- 
though the umpires are sometimes re- 



30 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

placed by touch-judges. The umpires 
act, as did the judges in our game of 
ten years ago, as advocates for their re- 
spective sides, and it is this advocacy 
which is causing them to fall into dis- 
favor there exactly as they did here. 
Touch-judges merely watch the lines of 
the field, and decide when and where 
the ball goes into touch. In cases 
where they are employed, the referee 
renders all decisions upon claim of the 
captains. In our method there is a di- 
vision of labor, but along different lines. 
Our three officials, the umpire, referee, 
and linesman, have their separate prov- 
inces, the first ruling upon the conduct of 
players as to off-side and other offences, 
while the second determines questions 
of fact as to when the ball is held or 
goes into touch, also whether a goal is 
kicked or not. As the rule has it, the 
umpire is judge for the players, and the 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RUGBY. 3 1 

referee for the ball. The linesman was 
added in 1894, and his duties are to 
mark the distances gained and lost in the 
progress of the play, to keep the time, and 
to bear testimony, as do also the other 
officials, when asked as to the offences 
of roughness, off-side play, and holding. 
The American rules, owing to the 
above-mentioned dissatisfaction with 
the undue development of interference 
and the consequent exaggeration of 
mass and push-plays to the detriment 
of kicking and open running, were al- 
tered in 1894 through the instrumen- 
tality of the University Athletic Club 
of New York City. The principal 
changes which were then made were as 
follows: Momentum -mass plays were 
forbidden, and not more than three 
men were allowed even to start before 
the ball was put in play. An especial 
inducement was also offered for drop- 



32 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

kicking by the passage of a rule pro- 
viding that when a side tried a drop- 
kick at goal upon any first-down inside 
the opponent's twenty- five yard Kne 
and the result was a touch -back, the 
attacking side could then line up at 
kick-out upon the ten yard line Instead 
of, as formerly, at the twenty-five-yard 
line. 

A rule was also passed providing for 
greater protection to a man making a 
fair catch. But perhaps the principal 
alteration, and the one bringing about 
far more kicking than had been prac- 
tised for many years on this side the 
water, was that enforcing an actual kick 
of at least ten yards in every case where 
the rules provide for a kick. Instead 
of the inevitable wedge seen upon 
American fields for years at every kick- 
off, kick-out, and free-kick, there is now 
a vigorous drive made, and the play 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RUGBY. S3 

Opened up for a time at least. With 
this change have come in many modi- 
fications attractive to both player and 
spectator. 

In 1896 the Rules Committee of the 
University Athletic Club made further 
restrictions upon momentum plays by 
enacting a rule that forbade any man to 
be in motion when the ball was put in 
play save a single man, who could be 
running towards his own goal. They 
also legislated against mass playing by 
practically compelling five men to be 
in the rush line ; and in case of five men 
besides the quarter dropping back, two 
were obliged to separate or stand out- 
side the end men of the line, or else drop 

back at least five yards. 
3 



END RUSHER 



The end rusher must get into condi- 
tion early. Unless he does, he cannot han- 
dle the work that must fall to his share, 
and the effect of a poor performance by 
the end is to produce disorder at once 
in the proportion of work as well as the 
quality of the work of the tackles and 
half-backs. This is not well understood 
by captains and coaches, but it is easy 
to see if one follows the play. A tired 
end rusher, even one who has expe- 
rience and a good idea of his place, will 
lope down the field under a kick, and 
by his lack of speed will allow a return ; 
and, against a running game, while he 
will, it is true, force his man in, he will 
do it so slowly that the runner is en- 



^8 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

abled to pass the tackle. The first 
will surely result in his own backs 
shortening their kicks, and the second 
in drawing his own tackle too widely 
from the guard. Both these results se- 
riously affect the value of the practice 
for backs and tackles ; consequently, 
the end must be put in condition early. 
The finer points of his position can be 
worked up gradually, but his endurance 
must be good at the outset, in order 
that the others may become accustomed 
to rely upon him for regular work. But 
it sometimes happens that the captain 
or coach has no chance to make sure of 
this. His candidates may be raw, and 
only appear upon the first day of fall 
practice. In that case there is a method 
which he can adopt to advantage, and 
which answers the purpose. It is to 
play his candidates for that position one 
after the other in rotation, insisting 



END RUSHER. 39 

Upon hard playing even if it be for only 
five minutes at a time. In this way not 
only will the tackle receive the proper 
support, but the ends themselves will 
improve far more rapidly than under 
the usual method. Every player upon 
a team has to labor under two distinctly 
different sets of circumstances : one set 
arising from the possession of the ball 
by his opponents, and the other from 
the possession of the ball by his own 
side. Many an error in instruction or 
coaching arises from terming the tactics 
adopted under these two conditions de- 
fensive and offensive. It is no uncom- 
mon thing to see an end rusher, who 
has been told that such and such is his 
defensive play, so affected by the word 
defensive, as applied to his action, as to 
fail entirely to perform any aggressive 
work when his opponents have the ball. 
And a similarly undesirable state of af- 



40 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

fairs is brought about by the term offen- 
sive when his own side have the ball. 
In this latter case, he seems inspired to 
become aggressive in his conduct tow- 
ards his opponent from the moment the 
men are lined up, and this very often 
leads him to make any interference of his 
so premature as to render it useless tow- 
ards favoring his runner. One of the first 
things, therefore, for a coach to tell an 
end rusher is that the terms offensive 
and defensive, as applied to team work, 
have nothing to do with the aggres- 
siveness of any individual. Then, as a 
matter of still better policy, let him 
avoid using these terms in individual 
coaching. 

When the opponents have the ball, 
the end rusher must, in the case of a 
kick, do his utmost to prevent his vis-a- 
vis from getting down the field early 
under the ball, and he should stay with 



END RUSHER. 4I 

him until his own back has secured the 
ball. That is the cardinal point, and 
it is not necessary for him to do much 
thinking regarding anything else when 
he is facing a kicking game. When 
his opponents are about to make a 
run, the situation is much more in- 
volved. He must then consider himself 
as the sole guardian of that space of 
ground extending from his tackle to the 
edge of the field, and he must begin at 
the touch line and work in. That is, he 
must remember that, while on one side 
of him there is the tackle, who will do 
his utmost to help him out, there is on 
the other side— that is, towards touch — ■ 
no one to assist him, and a run around 
the end means a free run for many 
yards. " Force the man in " is always 
a good motto for an end, and one he 
will do well to follow conscientiously. 
To force the man in does not mean, 



42 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

however, to stand with one foot on the 
touch hne, and then reach in as far as 
possible and watch the man go by, as 
nine out of every ten ends have been do- 
ing for some years. It means, go at the 
runner with the determination of getting 
him any way, but taking him always 
from the outside. An end cannot tackle 
as occasionally does a half-back or back, 
slowly and even waiting for his man, 
then meeting him low and strong. An 
end always has to face interference, and 
good interference will bowl over a wait- 
ing end with ease. An end must go up 
as far and fast as he dares to meet the 
runner, and Avhen his moment comes — 
which must be a selected moment — he 
must shoot in at his man, reaching him, 
if possible, with his shoulder, and at the 
same time extending his arms as far 
around him as possible. I\Iany times 
this reaching enables an end to grasp 



END RUSHER. 43 

his man even though a clever interferer 
break the force of his tackle. And 
when his fingers touch the runner, he 
must grip with the tenacity of the bull- 
dog, and never let go. 

It seems almost unnecessary to say 
that a high tackier has no chance what- 
ever as an end rusher. He may play 
guard or centre, but before a man ever es- 
says the end he must have passed through 
all the rudimentary schooling in tackling, 
and be such an adept that to pass him 
without the assistance of the most clever 
interference is an impossibility. 

An end should be a good follower ; 
that is, if the runner make in towards 
the tackle, the end should run him down 
from behind when interference cuts off 
the tackle. This is one of the best 
points for cultivation, because it effect- 
ually prevents any dodging by the run- 
ner. If he fail to take his opening 



44 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

cleanly, a following end is sure of him. 
This is not a safe point, however, to 
teach until the player has fairly mas- 
tered the ordinary end-work ; for the 
tendency is to leave his own position 
too soon, giving the runner an oppor- 
tunity to turn out behind him, and thus 
elude the tackle without difficulty. 

A few years ago there was quite a 
fashion for the man putting the ball in 
from touch to run with it along the edge 
of the field. The alteration in the rule 
regarding a fair has now, however, en- 
tirely done away with this play. Of 
these close double passes at the edge of 
the field the most effective w^ere those 
wherein the runner darted by just inside 
the touch line, and the w^eakest the ones 
wherein the attempt was made to ad- 
vance out into the field. To the play- 
ers in the centre of the line there is no 
apparent difference under the new rules. 



END RUSHER. 



45 



To the end and tackle, however, the 
difference is marked, because the man 
in putting the ball in play from a fair 
can no longer run with it, but must 
either kick it or walk in and have it 
down. The instructions to the end 
are, therefore, to be sure to get to the 
spot in time to prevent a kick. One 
can be quite sure that the opponents 
will not play the ball from touch unless 
they have time enough for a satisfactory 
kick. Without such it is by far the bet- 
ter policy to walk out the fifteen paces 
and have it down. When his own side 
have possession of the ball, the end 
rusher's play, like that of any other 
man, must be governed by the char- 
acter of the intended move, and the 
knowledge of what this move will be is 
conveyed to him by the signal. The 
nearer the play is to his end, the greater 
is the assistance he can render. There 
is little need of coachino- him to do his 



4-6 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

work when the run is along his Hne, nor, 
in fact, when it is upon his side of the 
centre. The knowledge of the prox- 
imity of the runner stirs him up suffi- 
ciently, if he have any football blood in 
him. The point towards which coaching 
should be directed and where it is need- 
ed is in starting instantly to render 
assistance when the play is upon the 
other side of the line. There is no 
limit to the amount of work an end 
may perform in this direction. A good 
end can toss his man back so that he 
cannot interfere with the play, and then 
cross over so quickly as to perform 
effective interference even upon end 
runs. In ''bucking the centre" he can 
come from behind with valuable weight 
and pressure. Dropping the ends back 
has come to be a favorite move in these 
days of wedge work, and will not by 
any means be discarded under the 



END RUSHER. 47 

later rules. A coach should remember, 
though, that it will not do to start an 
end into doing too much unless he is 
able to stand the work, for an end had 
better do the work well upon his own 
side than be only half-way useful upon 
both ends. A tired-out end makes the 
opponents doubly strong. 

With the increase in the number of 
kicks there has come a greater neces- 
sity of fast and untiring runners for the 
wings. To get down under a kick is 
the great feature, and while the tackles 
are taking up a great deal of this duty, 
the end still has far more of it than any 
untrained or poorly conditioned man 
can stand or perform satisfactorily. 



THE TACKLE 



Those teams upon which the work 
of end and tackle has been best devel- 
oped have, for the last few years, been 
markedly superior in the opposition of- 
fered to plays of their opponents. This 
fact in itself is an excellent.guide to the 
style of play one ought to expect from 
these two positions. The four men oc- 
cupying them are the ones to meet nine 
tenths of the aggressive work of the op- 
ponents, unless in the exaggerated use 
of centre wedges, and the rules adopted 
lately have curtailed that. The position 
of end has already been dwelt upon at 
length. That of tackle, a position much 
later to reach the full stage of develop- 
ment than the end, has nevertheless now 
attained quite an equal prominence, The 



52 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

tackle is an assistant to both end and 
guard, while he has also duties of his 
own demanding constant attention. 

When the opponents have the ball and 
are about to kick, the tackle is one of the 
most active components of the line. He 
may not be moving until the ball is 
snapped, but upon the instant that it is 
played he is at work. He may himself 
go through to prevent the pass or kick, or 
he may make a chance for a line half-back 
to do this. By a line half-back is meant 
one who, upon his opponents' plays, 
comes up into the line and performs 
the duties of a rusher. This method 
has become so common of late that it 
is well understood. The play of this 
line half-back must dovetail into the 
work of the tackle so well as to make 
their system one of thoroughly mutual 
understanding. For this reason they 
should do plenty of talking and plan- 



THE TACKLE. 53 

ning together off the field, and carry 
their plans into execution in daily prac- 
tice until they become in company a 
veritable terror to opponents, particu- 
larly to kicking backs. 

One of the very simple, yet clever 
and successful, combinations worked in 
this way has been for the line half to 
take his position outside the tackle, 
who immediately begins to edge out 
towards the end. This opens a gap be- 
tween the opposing tackle and guard, 
for the tackle will naturally follow his 
man. This line half simply watches the 
centre, and as he sees the ball played 
goes sharply behind the tackle and 
through the opening. This play can 
be greatly aided by cleverness on the 
part of the tackle, who, to perform it 
to perfection, should edge out most cau- 
tiously, and with an evident intention 
of going to the outside of his man. He 



54 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

should also watch the centre play, and, 
most important of all, jump directly 
forward into his man when the ball is 
snapped. This will enable the half to 
take almost a direct line for the back, 
and with his flying start have more than 
a fair chance of spoiling the kick. The 
tackle must not be idle after his plunge, 
but should follow in sharply, because 
there will always be an opposing half 
protecting the kicker ; and if the line 
half be checked by this man, as is not 
unlikely, the following tackle has an ex- 
cellent opportunity by getting in rapidly. 
The tackle and half should alternate in 
their arrangement, neither one always 
going through first, and thus add to 
the anxiety and discomfort of the op- 
ponents. 

When the opponents are about to run 
instead of kick, the same combination of 
line half and tackle can be put in opera- 



THE TACKLE. 55 

tion, except that it will not do for these 
two to follow each other through with 
such freedom, as there is too much dan- 
ger of both being shunted off by a clever 
turn coupled with well-timed interfer- 
ence. The cardinal point to be remem- 
bered is, to be far enough apart so that 
a single dodge and one interference can- 
not possibly throw off both men. 

The tackle's duties towards the end 
have been partially described in dwell- 
ing upon the work of the latter, but 
there is plenty of detail to be studied. 
One of the first things to impress upon 
the tackle is, that he must watch the 
ball, not only upon the pass from the 
quarter, but also after it settles in the 
runner's arms, for the most successful 
double or combination passes are those 
which draw the tackle in towards the 
centre and give the second recipient of 
the ball only the end to pass. It has 



56 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

been too common a mistake of coaches 
to caution a tackle who has been de- 
ceived by this double pass against " go- 
ing so hard." This is wrong. It soon 
results in making a slow man of the 
player, for he hangs back to see if the 
runner be not about to pass the ball, un- 
til he is too late to try for the man be- 
fore he reaches the rush line ; and, with 
the present system of interference and 
crowding a runner after he reaches the 
rush line, there is no chance to stop him 
short of three, and it may very likely 
be five, yards. The proper coaching is 
to send him through on the jump, with 
his eyes open for tricks. Let him take 
a step or two towards the runner, so 
that, if no second pass be made, the 
tackle will be sure to meet him before 
he reaches the rush line, and not after 
it. This method of coaching makes 
not only sharp tackles, but quick and 



THE TACKLE. 57 

clever ones, with plenty of indepen- 
dence, which will be found a most ex- 
cellent quality. 

As regards the relations between the 
tackle and guard, they are best defined 
by saying that the guard expects to re- 
ceive the assistance of the tackle in all 
cases requiring agility, while in cases 
requiring weight the guard is equally 
ready to lend assistance to the tackle. 

When his own side has the ball, the 
tackle has far more than the end to do. 
In fact, the tackle has the most respon- 
sible work of any man along the line, 
having more openings to make, and 
at the same time the blocking he has 
to perform is more difficult. The ear- 
lier description of the work of a line 
half and the tackle in getting through 
is sufficient to indicate the difficulties 
which the opposing tackle must face 
in preventing this breaking through. 



$8 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

While blocking may not be the most 
important duty, it is certainly the one 
which will bear the most cultivation in 
the tackles of the present day, for the 
ones who are really adept in it are marked 
exceptions to the general run. It is no 
exaggeration to say that more than two 
thirds of the breaking through that does 
real damage comes between the end and 
guard, and therefore in the space sup- 
posed to be under the care of the tackle. 
By successful blocking is meant, not un- 
fair holding, which sooner or later will 
result in disaster, nor backing upon a 
runner or kicker as the charger advances, 
which is almost as bad as no blocking, 
but that clever and properly timed body- 
checking of the opponent which delays 
him just long enough to render his ef- 
fort to reach his man futile every time. 
This kind of blocking looks so easy, and 
is so difficult, that it is found only in a 



THE TACKLE. 59 

man who is willing to make a study of 
it. Coaching can but give any one wish- 
ing to acquire this a few points ; the real 
accomplishment depends upon the man's 
unflagging perseverance and study. The 
first thing to be noted is, that a really 
good forward cannot possibly be blocked 
every time in the same way. He soon 
becomes used to the method, and is able 
to avoid the attempt. Dashing violently 
against him just as he is starting may 
work once or twice, and then he will 
make a false start to draw this charge, 
and easily go by the man. Standing 
motionless, and then turning with a 
sharp swing back against him, will dis- 
concert his charge once in a while. Shoul- 
dering him in the side as he passes will 
throw him off his balance or against 
some other man, if well performed, oc- 
casionally. Falling down before him 
by a plunge will upset him even when 



6o AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

he has quite a clear space apparently, 
but it will not work if played too often. 
By a preconcerted plan he may be 
coaxed through upon a pretended snap, 
and then the ball played while he is 
guarded and five yards gained by his 
off-side play, but he will not be taken 
in again by the same method. Nor is this 
quite in the proper spirit of the sport. 
These are but a few of the strategies 
which engage the study of the tackle. 
How soon to let the man through is also 
an important question. When the ball is 
to be punted, the tackle upon the kick- 
er's side must block long and hard,while 
the tackle upon the other end should 
block sharply, and then let his man 
through for the sake of getting down 
the field under the kick. When a drop 
is to be attempted, the blocking upon 
both sides must be close and long, much 
longer than for a punt. INIoreover, it is 



THE TACKLE. 6 1 

by no means a bad policy to have the 
blocking last until the ball is actually 
seen in the air in front of the line, be- 
cause then, if the kick be stopped, the 
tackles can go back to assist the backs 
in recovering the ball. The blocking 
for a kick, as a rule, should be close ; 
that is, every opponent must be matched 
from the centre out, leaving the free 
man or men on the ends. This rule has 
its exceptions, but when there is any 
doubt about the play it is safest to block 
close, and take the chances from the ends 
rather than through breaks in the line. 

In blocking for a run the case is very 
different, and depends upon the point 
of assault. If the run is to be made 
around the right end, for instance, by 
the left half-back, the right tackle must 
block very slowly and long. That is, 
he must not dash up to his man the in- 
stant the ball is snapped and butt him 



62 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

aside, for the runner will not be near 
enough to derive any advantage from 
this, and the opponent will easily re- 
cover in time to tackle him. Rather 
should he avoid contact with his man 
until his runner makes headway, and 
then keep between the opponent and 
runner until the latter puts on steam to 
circle, when it is his duty to engage his 
man sharply, and thus let the runner 
pass. In blocking for an inside run 
upon his own side, he should turn his 
man out or in, as the case may be, just 
as the runner reaches the opening, be- 
ing particularly careful not to make 
the break too early, lest the opponent 
reach the runner before he comes to 
the opening. 

A few words of comment upon the 
principles of momentum -mass plays 
should be given, even though the pres- 
ent rules are directed against them. It 



THE TACKLE. 63 

is hardly probable that the principle in- 
volved will be wholly given up, although 
the methods will be more or less altered. 
The real momentum-mass play depended 
upon bringing a group of men in motion 
against a man or men compelled, through 
fear of off-side, to stand still. Thus three 
or four men would form in the shape of 
a line or wedge some eight or ten yards 
back of the spot where the ball was 
down, and not until they were in full 
tilt at the opposing line would the ball 
be played. The over-development of 
this play has brought about its con- 
demnation. Momentum plays have now 
been practically abolished, but mass 
plays are still in vogue, and on these a 
tackle's duty is mainly to smash or 
check the progress of the mass, throwing 
the weight back upon the runner, or 
forcing him to come out so that the end 
rush line, half, or guard may reach him. 



THE GUARD 



The position of guard, while it re- 
quires less agility than that of tackle, 
can never be satisfactorily filled by a 
man who is slow. Many a coach makes 
this mistake and fails to see his error 
until too late to correct it. I remember 
once seeing upon a minor team a guard 
who weighed at least 190 pounds re- 
placed by a man of 155, and the latter 
actually filled the position — greatly to 
my astonishment, I confess — in excel- 
lent fashion. This does not at all go to 
prove that weight is of no value in a 
guard. On the contrary, it is a quality 
especially to be desired, and if one can 
find a heavy man who is not slow he is 
the choice by all means. But weight 



68 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

must be given work to do, and that 
work demands practice, and slowness of 
execution cannot be tolerated. At the 
outset the coach must impress this fact 
upon the guards, and insist upon their 
doing their work quickly. It is really 
wonderful how much better the effect 
of that work will prove to be when per- 
formed with a snap and dash that are 
not difficult to acquire. 

When the opponents have the ball 
and are about to kick, the guard should 
have in his mind one persistent thought, 
and that is, to reach the quarter before 
the ball is away from his hand, but not 
to stop there. It is only once in a great 
while that fortune favors sufficiently 
to crown this attempt with success. 
When it does, so much the better; but 
the guard should take in the quarter 
only in a general sweep, making on for 
the kicker, and at the same time getting 



THE GUARD. 69 

his arms up in the air when he comes 
before him, so as to take every possible 
chance of stopping the ball. Just here 
it may be well to explain the confidence 
with which in these details of coaching 
the phrases are used "when the oppo- 
nents are about to kick" and "when 
the opponents are about to run." It 
is true that one cannot tell infallibly 
every time whether the play will be a 
kick or a run, but experienced players 
are really so seldom at fault in their 
judgment upon this point that it is safe 
to coach as though there never existed 
any doubt about the matter. 

To continue with the work of the 
guard when the opponents are about to 
attempt a run. One of the most im- 
portant features of the play in this po- 
sition is to guard against small wedges. 
If a guard simply stands still and 
straight he will be swept over like a 



70 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

wisp of straw by any well -executed 
wedge play directed at him. An ex- 
perienced man knows this, and his chief 
thought is how to avoid it, and how, first, 
to prevent the formation ; second, to al- 
ter the direction, and, finally, to stop the 
progress, of this terror of centre work, 
the small wedge. There are as many 
ways of accomplishing these results as 
of performing the duties of tackle or 
end, and it rests with the individual 
player to study them out. To prevent 
the formation of small wedges, the most 
successful method is that of sudden 
and, if possible, disconcerting move- 
ments. Jostling, so far as it is allowed, 
sudden change of position, a pretended 
charge — all these tend to break up 
the close formation. Once formed and 
started, the change of direction is usu- 
ally the most disarranging play pos- 
sible ; but this should not be attempted 



THE GUARD. 7 1 

by the player or players opposite the 
point of the wedge. At that spot the 
proper play is to check advance, even 
temporarily ; for the advance once 
checked, the wedge may be swung from 
the side so as to take off the pressure 
from behind. So it is the men at the 
side who must endeavor to turn the 
wedge and take off this pressure. 
Without the actual formation upon the 
field it is difficult to fully explain this 
turning of the wedge ; but if the prin- 
ciple of the defence be borne in mind, it 
will not be found so hard to under- 
stand. Check the peak even for a mo- 
ment, and get the weight off from be- 
hind as speedily as possible. The men 
who are pushing must necessarily act 
blindly ; and if their force is not directly 
upon the men at the point of the V, 
they pass by the man with the ball and 
so become useless. Both guards must 



72 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

keep their weight down low, close to 
the ground, so that the wedge, if di- 
rected at either, cannot throw that one 
at once off his balance backward. If 
this occurs, the wedge will always make 
its distance, perhaps go many yards. 
Lying down before the wedge is a prac- 
tice based upon this principle of keep- 
ing close to the ground, and is by no 
means an ineffectual way of stopping 
an advance, although it is not as strong 
a play as bringing about the same result 
without actually losing the power to 
straighten up if the wedge turns. More- 
over, the men in the front of a wedge 
are becoming so accustomed to meeting 
this flat defence that they not infre- 
quently succeed in getting over the 
prostrate man and regaining headway 
upon the other side. This, as one can 
readily see, must always yield a very 
considerable gain. When a run is at- 



THE GUARD. 73 

tempted at some other point in the Hne, 
it is the duty of the guards to get 
through hard and follow the runner 
into his opening, even if they cannot 
reach him before he comes into the line. 
In this class of play a guard should re- 
member that if he can lay a hand upon 
the runner before he reaches the line he 
can spoil the advance to a certainty, for 
no runner can drag a heavy guard up 
into and through an opening. It is like 
dragging a heavy and unwieldy anchor. 
A guard can afford to, and must some- 
times, tackle high. Not that he should, 
in the open, ever go at the shoulders, 
but in close quarters he often has no 
time to get down low, and must make 
the best of taking his man anywhere 
that the opportunity offers. He must 
always, however, throw him towards the 
opponent's goal. Another point for 
guards to bear in mind is, that in close 



74 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

quarters it is often possible to deprive 
the runner of the ball before he says 
" down." A guard who always tries 
this will be surprised at the number of 
times he will find the referee giving him 
the ball. He wall also be astonished at 
the way this attempt results in the run- 
ner saying " down " as soon as he finds 
some one tugging at the ball. A man 
gives up all thought of further advance 
the instant he finds the ball slipping at 
all in his grasp ; and when his attention 
is distracted from the idea of running, 
as it is when he is fearful of losing the 
ball, he can never make use of his op- 
portunities to good advantage. For 
this reason the coach should impress 
upon all the forwards the necessity of 
always trying to take away the ball ; 
but the men in and near the centre 
are likely to have the best opportunity 
for this play, because it is there that 



THE GUARD. 75 

the runner encounters a number of men 
at once rather than a single individual. 
When his own side have the ball the 
guard must block sharply until the 
quarter has time for receiving the ball, 
and, at any rate, beginning the motion of 
the pass. It is safer, in the case of inex- 
perienced guards, to tell them to block 
until the quarter has time to get rid of 
the ball. The distinction is this : that 
an experienced guard sometim.es likes 
to gain just that second of time be- 
tween the beginning of the pass and 
the completion of the swing, and utilize 
it in getting down the field or into the 
interference. So accustomed does he 
become to measuring the time correctly 
that he will let the opponent through 
just too late to reach the quarter, al- 
though it seems a very close call. It is 
not safe to let green guards attempt 
anything so close. They must be 



76 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

taught to block securely until the ball 
is on its way to the runner or kicker. 
The blocking of a guard is much less 
exacting in its requirements than that 
of the tackle. Not that he must not 
block with equal certainty, but the act 
requires seldom such covering of two 
men as often happens in the case of a 
tackle. The quarter will very likely come 
up, but he can be on but one side at a 
time, and he is also usually a light man. 
The guard forms closely towards the 
centre, and then follows his man out if 
he moves out, but only as far as he can 
go, and still be absolutely certain that 
the opponent cannot pass between him 
and the snap-back. To be drawn or 
coaxed out far enough to admit of an 
opponent's going through the centre 
shows woful ignorance in any guard. 

When a kick is to be made the 
blocking must be prolonged a little, and 



THE GUARD. 77 

on a drop-kick (as mentioned earlier) 
it should last until the ball goes from 
the foot. When blocking for a run, of 
course much depends upon where the 
opening is to be made, and a guard 
must be governed accordingly. The 
method itself is, again, different in the 
guard from that exhibited in the tackle. 
A guard may not move about so freely 
and must face his man more squarely 
than a tackle, for the guard must pro- 
tect the quarter first, while the tackle 
considers the half only. If a guard al- 
lows his opponent to get a fair lunge 
with outstretched arm over or past his 
shoulder, he may reach the quarter's 
arm even though his body is checked, 
while such a reach at the point in the 
line occupied by the tackle would be of 
no value whatever. It was once the 
duty of the guards, previous to the 
snap -back's playing the ball, to see 



78 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

that their individual opponents did not 
succeed in either kicking the ball out 
from the snap-back's hand or otherwise 
interfering with his play. A rule has 
now been made, however, which saves 
the guards this trouble ; still a centre 
should always feel that he has upon 
either hand a steady and wide-awake 
assistant, who will neither be caught 
napping nor allow any unfair advantage 
to be taken of him. The guard should 
bear in mind one fact, however, and 
that most clearly. It is that squabbling 
and general pushing about are far more 
liable to disconcert his own centre and 
quarter than to interfere with the work 
of the opponents. 



THE CENTRE, OR SNAP-BACK 



The man who may be selected to fill 
the important position of centre -rush 
must be a man of sense and strength. 
Brain and brawn are here at their high- 
est premium. But there is another ele- 
ment of character without which both 
will be overthrown, and that is pa- 
tience. Practical experience has taught 
football coaches that none but a thor- 
oughly self-controlled man can make a 
success in football in any position, while 
in this particular one his disposition 
should be of the most equable nature. 
He will be called upon to face all kinds 
of petty annoyances, for his opponents 
will endeavor to make his play as dif- 
ficult as possible ; and never must he al- 



82 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

low himself for one Instant to lose sight 
of the fact that his entire attention 
must be devoted to his play, and none 
of it distracted by personal feeling. 
Moreover, while he must be able to 
play the ball quickly when called upon, 
he can never afford to be hurried by his 
opponents. With the present excellent 
rulings of umpires regarding interfer- 
ence with the ball before it is snapped, 
much of the most harassing kicking of 
the ball from under his hand has been 
stopped ; but, for all that, he is indeed a 
lucky centre who does not feel the ball 
knocked out from under his grasp sev- 
eral times during a game. In addition 
to this, every man who breaks through 
gives him a rub. Sometimes these 
knocks are intentional, often they are 
given purely by accident, and the latter 
are by no means the lightest. Then, 
too, a man is pushed into the snap-back 



THE CENTRE, OR SNAP-BACK. 83 

just as the ball goes. It may be his 
own guard, but the blow hurts just as 
much; and a centre who is not amiable 
under such treatment soon loses his head 
and forgets that he should care for noth- 
ing except to accomplish gains for his 
own side. The object of placing so 
much stress upon this qualification is 
to impress upon a coach the almost in- 
estimable value of the quality of patience 
in any men he may be trying for this 
position. He can never say too much 
about it. 

As regards the duties of the place, 
they differ from those of any other po- 
sition in the line on account of the con- 
stant presence at that spot of the ball. 
The centre is either playing the ball 
himself or watching his antagonist play 
the ball at every down ; so that while he 
has all the other duties of a forward to 
execute, he has the special work besides. 



84 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

Here is the weakness of so many cen- 
tres. They are snap-backs only or for- 
wards only, the former being by all 
odds the more common. A good criti- 
cal coach of experience will see nine 
out of every ten men whom he may 
watch in this position playing through 
day after day with no mc»re idea of do- 
ing any forward work than if they were 
referees. Putting the ball in play at 
the right time, and properly, is a great 
achievement, but it does not free the 
centre-rush from all other obligations. 
He must protect his quarter ; he must 
aid in making openings, and perform 
any interference that may be possible, 
as well as always assisting a runner of 
his own side with weight or protection. 
He must sometimes get down the field 
under a kick, for it is by no means unusu- 
al for him to have the best opportunity 
in these days when end rushers are so 



THE CENTRE, OR SNAP-BACK. 85 

carefully watched. When the oppo- 
nents have the ball, he must not be con- 
tent with seeing that the opponent does 
not roll it to a guard, but must also see 
that there is no short, tricky passing in 
the scrimmage. Then he must be as 
ready as either guard to meet, stop, or 
turn a wedge. He must make openings 
for his comrades to get through, even 
when he himself may be blocked, and 
always be ready to reach out or throw 
himself before a comiing runner to check 
the advance. 

The details of the special work of the 
centre are many, and thorough knowl- 
edge of them can only come from ex- 
perience. During his early progress a 
new snap-back usually sends the ball 
against his own legs, or, if he manages 
to keep them out of the way, is upset 
by his opponent for his pains. It is no 
child's play to hold a ball out at arm's- 



86 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

length on the ground in front of one 
and roll it back so that it passes be- 
tween one's feet, and still preserve a 
good balance in spite of a sudden push 
of a hundred-and-eighty-pound oppo- 
nent. But that is just what a centre has 
to do every time the ball is down and 
belongs to his side. The first thing to 
teach a centre is to stand on his feet 
against any amount of jostling. Then 
he must learn to keep possession of the 
ball until ready to play it. Both of 
these acquirements take practice. The 
most finished and experienced centres 
have a way of playing the ball just as 
they are half straightening as though 
to meet a charge from in front. This 
insures their not being pushed over on 
to the quarter, and yet does not cause 
them to lean so far forward as to be 
pitched on their noses by a little assist- 
ance from the opposing centre. When 



THE CENTRE, OR SNAP-EACK. 87 

a man stands so as to prevent a push in 
the chest from upsetting him, he natu- 
rally puts one foot back' some distance 
as a support. When a centre does this 
he is apt to put that foot and leg in the 
path of the ball. A second objection 
to this way of standing is, that the cen- 
tre does not offer nearly as much oppo- 
sition to any one attempting to pass as 
he does when he stands more squarely 
faced about with a good spread of the 
legs. As to holding the ball, some cen- 
tres prefer to take it by the end, while 
others roll it on its side. It can be 
made to rise for the quarter if sent on 
end, whereas if played upon its side it 
lies closer to the ground. The quar- 
ter's preference has, therefore, some- 
thing to do with it. It requires longer 
practice and more skill to play the ball 
on its end, but it permits an umpire to 
see more clearly whether the ball be 



88 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

actually put in play by the snap-back 
or played for him by the surreptitious 
kick of the opponent. It has also the 
advantage of sending the ball more nar- 
rowly upon a line, so that its course is less 
likely to be altered than when rolled 
upon its side. While the snap-back is 
seldom held to the very strictest con- 
formity to the rule about being on side 
when he puts the ball in play, it is nec- 
essary for him to practise with a view 
to this particular, because he is liable to 
be obliged to conform every time if the 
opponents insist. The reason for care- 
lessness in this respect is this : There is 
no penalty for infringement except that 
of being obliged to return to the spot 
and put the ball in play properly. A 
certain laxity, therefore, is granted rath- 
er than delay the play. But, as stated 
above, a centre must be able to put the 
ball in play when fairly on side, and must 



THE CENTRE, OR SNAP-BACK. 89 

live Up to this with some moderate de- 
gree of regularity, or else the umpire will 
call an off side and brinq; him back. A 
centre ought to practise putting the ball 
in play with either hand until he is fair- 
ly proficient with his left as well as his 
right. Not that he should use his hands 
alternately in a game, but that an in- 
jury to his right hand need not neces- 
sarily throw him out of the game. It 
is by no means an unrecognized fact 
that the greater amount of experience 
possessed by the regular centre is so 
valuable as to make it policy to keep 
him in his place so long as his legs are 
good, even -though a hand be injured, 
rather than to replace him by the sub- 
stitute with whose methods the quarter- 
back is not so familiar. 

A coach should see to it that his centre 
has a variety of men to face, some big, 
some tricky, some ugly. If any old play- 



90 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

ers come back to help the team in the 
way of coaching, and among them are 
some centre rushers, they can do no bet- 
ter work than by donning a uniform and 
playing against the " 'Varsity " centre. 



THE QUARTER-BACK 



The quarter is, under the captain, the 
director of the game. With the excep- 
tion of one or two uncommon and rare 
plays, there is not one of any kind, his 
side having the ball, in which it does not 
pass through his hands. The impor- 
tance of his work it is therefore impos- 
sible to overrate. He must be, above 
all the qualifications of brains and agil- 
ity usually attributed to that position, 
of a hopeful or sanguine disposition. He 
must have confidence in his centre him- 
self, and, most of all, in the man to 
whom he passes the ball. He should 
always believe that the play will be a 
success. The coach can choose no more 
helpful course during the first few days, 



94 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

as far as the quarter is concerned, than 
that of persuading him to repose confi- 
dence in his men. Many promising half- 
backs are ruined by the quarter. There 
is nothing that makes halves fumble so 
badly, get into such awkward positions, 
start so slowly, and withal play so half- 
heartedly, as the feeling that the quarter 
does not think much of them, does not 
trust them, or believe in their abilities. 
Every half-back can tell the same story 
— how he is nerved up by the confidence 
of the quarter, and what an inspiration 
it is to good work to see that confident 
look in the eye of the man who is about 
to pass to him. But not alone in the 
work of the half does it make a great 
difference, but in that of the quarter 
himself. When he lacks confidence in 
his man, his passing is unsteady and er- 
ratic as well as slow. He allows the 
opponents a far better chance of reach- 



THE QUARTER-BACK. 95 

ing the man before he can get started, 
both by irregular and slow passing, and 
also by a nervous looking at him before 
the ball is played. 

In practice, great stress should be laid 
on quick handling and sharp passing of 
the ball. A quarter can slow up in a 
game if advisable, but he can never do 
any faster work than that which he does 
in practice without throwing his men 
completely out. In order to make the 
play rapid, a quarter must be figuratively 
tied to the centre's coat, or rather jacket, 
tails. As soon as the centre reaches the 
ball after a down, he should know that 
the quarter is with him. Usually there 
is an understood signal between them, 
which not only shows the centre that 
the quarter is on hand, but also when he 
is ready to receive the ball. One of the 
most common of these signals has been 
placing the hand upon the centre's leg 



g6 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

or back. A pinch would let him know 
when to snap the ball. In spite of this 
method's having been used by oppo- 
nents to fool a centre, it has been, and 
still is, the most common. One of the 
best variations of it has been for the 
quarter to put his hand upon the centre 
and keep it there until he is ready for 
the ball, then take it off and let the 
centre snap the ball, not instantly, but 
at his convenience. Should anything 
occur making it advisable, for some rea- 
son, to stop the play, the quarter puts 
his hand upon the centre again at once, 
and until it is once more removed the 
snap-back understands that the quarter 
is not ready to have the ball come. Al- 
most any amount of variation can be 
made in the signal of the quarter to his 
centre ; but in arranging this it should 
be constantly borne in mind that the 
signal should not be such as to give the 



THE QUARTER-BACK. 97 

Opponents the exact instant of the play^ 
because it gives them too close an idea 
of the moment when they may start. 

The speed of a quarter's work de- 
pends upon his abihty to take the ball 
close to the snap-back and in proper 
position for a pass. In merely handing 
the ball to a runner, one might suppose 
that there would be no particular posi- 
tion in v/hich the ball should be held ; 
but in that he would be in error, for a 
ball so handed to a passing runner as 
not to settle properly in his arms or 
hands means in many instances a disas- 
trous fumble, or at best a slowing-up of 
the runner's speed. In giving the ball 
to a passing runner, it should be held 
free and clear of the quarter's body and 
slightly tilted, so that it can be taken 
against the body, and without the use 
of both hands for more than an instant, 
because the runner may almost imme- 



qS AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

diately have use for his arm in going 
into the line. It is impossible to give 
in print the exact angle and method of 
holding the ball for this purpose, but 
practice and the wishes of the runners, 
if consulted, will soon show the quarter 
just what is meant. When the ball is 
to be passed any considerable distance, 
it should be taken so that the end is 
well placed against the hand of the 
quarter, while the ball itself lies against 
the forearm, the wrist being bent sharp- 
ly. This will enable the quarter to send 
the ball swiftly and accurately almost 
any distance that it maybe necessary to 
cover. Of course, in many cases the 
ball does not actually rest against the 
forearm of the quarter ; but this is the 
best way of conveying the idea of the 
proper position of the hand upon the 
point of the ball, and by practising in 
this way the correct motion for steady 



THE QUARTER-BACK. 99 

passing is speedily acquired. In receiv- 
ing the ball, the right hand, or the hand 
v/ith Avhich the throw is made, should be 
placed upon the end of the ball, while 
the other hand stops its progress, and 
should be placed as nearly upon the 
opposite end of the ball as convenient. 
This is the theoretically proper way of 
receiving the ball ; practically, the hand- 
ling cannot be as accurately performed 
as this would indicate. If, however, the 
quarter will in practice be constantly 
aiming at receiving the ball so that his 
right hand grasps the end just as his 
left hand stops the ball, and settles it 
securely against his right, he will find 
that after a few weeks he can receive 
four out of five snap-backs in such a 
way as to make any great amount of ar- 
ranging the ball for his pass, after it is in 
his hands, quite unnecessary. After the 
preliminary weeks of practice, and when 



TOO AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

in a game, he must bear in mind the 
fact that, in order of importance, his du- 
ties are, first, to secure the ball, no mat- 
ter how ; second, to convey it to his own 
man, no matter whether in good form 
or not. He must never pass the ball if 
he has fumbled it, unless he has a per- 
fectly clear field in which to do it. He 
must always have it down in preference 
to taking the slightest risk of losing it. 
Even though he receive it without a fum- 
ble, there may be an opening through in 
that part of the line towards which his 
pass is to be delivered ; and here, again, 
he should hold the ball for another 
down rather than take any chance of 
the opponents intercepting the pass. 
After letting the ball go, the quarter 
should follow his pass ; in fact, he 
should be on the run as the ball 
leaves his hand. No matter whether 
the ball be caught or fumbled, he is then 



THE QUARTER-BACK. 1 01 

ready to lend assistance ; whereas if he 
stand still after his pass, he is of no use 
to the rest of the play. When the play 
is a run, he can do excellent work in in- 
terfering ; and when the play is a kick, 
he can take any opponent who gets 
through, and thus aid the half in pro- 
tecting the kicker. In either case, if his 
own man muff or fumble he is close at 
hand to lend assistance in an emergen- 
cy, which otherwise might prove most 
disastrous. When lining up the quarter 
should take a quick glance, not directly 
at the player he is to make the recipient 
of the ball, but covering the general po- 
sition of all the men. In doing this he 
locates his individual without making it 
apparent to the opponents which man 
is to receive the ball. Any amount of 
disguise may be practised in the way of 
taking a last glance at the wrong man, 
or calling out to some one who does not 



102 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

enter into the play. The chief point, 
nevertheless, is to avoid that tell-tale 
glance at the right man which is so dif- 
ficult to omit. 

When the opponents have the ball, 
the quarter makes an extra man in or 
near the forward line, and, as a rule, he 
can by his shrewdness make it very un- 
comfortable for any point in the line 
which he chooses to assail. No law can 
govern his tactics in this respect, but he 
should be a law unto himself, and show 
by his cleverness that he is more valu- 
able than any man in the line whose 
position is fixed. One caution only is 
worth giving to the quarter in this line 
of play, and that is, to be less free of 
going forward sharply when the play is 
evidently to be a run than when a kick 
is to be attempted. In the latter case, a 
quarter can ahvays be sent for his best. 



THE HALF-BACK AND BACK 



With the later changes in the rules 
the province of the three backs becomes 
of even greater importance than before, 
and the development of open play puts 
a still higher premium upon men who 
can kick and also upon men who have 
pace. 

As the game is at present played, the 
back is more of a third half-back than a 
goal-tend, and so should be trained to 
half-back work. It has been well said 
that all that one can ask of the best 
rush line is to hold the ground their 
half-backs gain ; and when one follov^^s 
carefully the progress of the play, he 
sees that this is the proper division of 
the work. The half-backs, then, must 



I06 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

be the ground-gainers of the team. Such 
work calls for dash and fire — that ability 
to suddenly concentrate all the bodily 
energy into an effort that must make 
way through anything. Every one has 
such half-backs in mind, but unfortu- 
nately many of those half-backs who 
possess this type of character have not 
the necessary weight and strength to 
stand the amount of work required. 
Although a light man be occasionally 
found who is particularly muscular and 
wiry, the constant shock of going into a 
heavy line of forwards usually proves 
too exhausting for any but those of 
middle weight before the end of a sea- 
son be reached. It is not that the v/ork 
of a single gamiC proves too much for 
the light-weight half. It is that in both 
practice and games he is so overmatched 
by the weight of the forwards whom he 
must meet that every week finds him 



THE HALF-BACK AND BACK. I07 

less strong than the preceding, until his 
playing falls off so markedly that the 
captain or coach is at last convinced 
that there is something wrong, and the 
man is replaced by some one else, often 
too late to bring the substitute up to 
anything like the mark he might have 
reached had he been tried earlier in the 
season. Such thoughts as these will 
suggest themselves to the experienced 
coach when at the outset of a season he 
has placed before him a number of can- 
didates for the position of half-back, 
among whom very likely there may be 
two or three men of perhaps one hun- 
dred and forty pounds' weight. Likely 
enough, too, these men may be at that 
period easily superior to the middle or 
heavyweights. In such a case the very 
best advice that can be whispered in the 
ear of coach or captain is, to make quar- 
ters or ends of them, even though it be 



loS AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

only substitute quarters and ends. It 
will leave the way open for the proper 
cultivation of half-backs better built to 
stand the wear and tear of a season. 

Almost equally to be deprecated is the 
waste of time often devoted to making 
half-backs of slow heavy weights. Only 
a quick man can perform a half-back's 
duties successfully ; and although much 
can be left to practice, there must be 
some natural quickness to build upon. 
Slow men can be improved far more 
rapidly in the forward line than among 
the halves. All this regarding the 
weight of half-backs applies not only 
to 'varsity teams, but school teams as 
well, if one will make the proper pro- 
portional changes in weight. That is, a 
'varsity player will be called upon to 
face a forward line averaging one hun- 
dred and seventy -five or thereabouts, 
and men of less than one hundred and 



THE HALF-BACK AND BACK. I09 

thirty-five to one hundred and forty are 
too hght to meet that weight. In school 
teams the rush Hne will be some twenty 
pounds lighter, and the halves can there- 
fore be selected from even one-hundred- 
and-twenty-five-pound men, if v/ell built. 
In other words, a half-back ought not to 
face over twenty-five pounds' difference 
in weight ; and the more that difference 
is reduced, supposing that speed and 
agility be retained, the more chance 
there is of turning out a thoroughly 
successful player. It is worth while to 
be thus particular upon the point of the 
early selection of candidates for the 
position of half-back, because, while no 
more work is demanded of them in a 
game than of others of their side, the 
quality of that work must be more uni- 
formly good. When a half-back has to 
tackle, he must be as sure as a steel- 
trap ; when a half-back has to catch, he 



no AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

must be a man to be relied upon ; when 
a half-back is called upon for a kick, 
it must be no fluke ; and, although no 
one expects a half-back to always make 
on his run the five yards, he must be 
a man who will not be denied when 
he is called upon for that last yard 
which will enable his side to retain the 
ball. 

Almost the first thing to be critically 
noted by the coach is the way in which 
a half-back takes the ball from his quar- 
ter. The case in which he takes it di- 
rectly from the hands of this player has 
been already dwelt upon at some length 
under the head of the quarter's passing ; 
but when the ball is thrown or passed 
some little distance, it is just as impor- 
tant that it be properly received. Ex- 
cept when about to kick, the half-back 
should be moving Avhen he receives the 
ball, and, more than that, the reception 



THE HALF-BACK AND BACK, III 

of it should have no perceptible effect 
upon his movements. In other v/ords, 
he must take it as easily and as natu- 
rally as a batsman in a ball game drops 
his bat after he has hit the ball fairly. 
No batsman remembers that he has 
had the bat in his hands after the ball 
has been hit, and yet, when he is at first 
base, he has left his bat behind him at 
the plate. Thus a football half-back 
should so receive the ball as not to 
know the exact instant of taking it, 
but find that he has it as he comes 
up to the line. It will never do for a 
coach to suppose that an inexperienced 
half can be told that he must take the 
ball " without knowing it," but it is 
necessary to explain to a half that until 
he does take the ball naturally, and 
without having to stop and calculate 
about it, he can never come properly up 
to the line nor get his whole power on 



112 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

early. To acquire the habit of taking a 
pass easily, a half-back should spend a 
little time every day off the field in 
practising taking a sharp pass when on 
the run. By a sharp pass is not meant 
hurling the ball with all possible force 
against a runner so that he is nearly 
knocked over by it, and cannot by any 
possibility catch it except at the ex- 
pense of giving the catch his sole and 
undivided attention. Such passing in 
practice does far more harm than good. 
The ball should be passed with that 
easy swing which sends it rapidly, accu- 
rately, and evenly up to the runner with- 
out any great apparent force, for it is 
remarkable how much the appearance 
of force tends to rattle the runner, who 
easily handles fully as much speed prop- 
erly delivered. Daily practice of this 
nature between the quarter and half ac- 
customs each to the -other, so that the 



THE HALF-BACK AND BACK. II3 

regular work of the team on the field is 
not disorganized by loose passing and 
looser catching. While this passing is 
progressing, the coach should stand by 
the side of the half, and watch him 
closely, correcting any careless tenden- 
cies of receiving or stopping, and pay- 
ing particular attention to his going in 
a straight line — that is, not running up 
to meet the ball and then sheering off 
again. The best half-backs endeavor to 
receive the ball at approximately the 
same height relative to their bodies, no 
matter how it comes, and they will cor- 
rect quite a variation in the quarter's 
throw by a little stoop or a slight jump. 
A half-back must be taught to be uni- 
form in starting, and in reaching the spot 
v/here the ball is to meet him. The 
coach will have no great difficulty in 
teaching him this steady uniformity of 
pace, which will enable the quarter to 



114 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

throw the ball so as really to assist 
rather than retard his motion. There 
are two other things which the half-back 
must practise apart from his team-play. 
They are kicking and catching. The 
former is of sufficient importance to de- 
serve a separate chapter, but a few hints 
under the half-back column will not be 
out of place. There was a time when 
the running game had so fascinated 
American captains and coaches, togeth- 
er with their teams, that the great value 
of long, well-placed kicks was, in a great 
measure, lost sight of ; but such a state 
of affairs can no longer prevail, and 
every team, to be successful in matches 
with their equals in the other points of 
the play, should bring out a good meth- 
od of executing a kicking game when 
called for. It is usually the case that 
of all three men behind the line, the two 
halves and the back, any one can do the 



THE HALF-BACK AND BACK. II5 

kicking upon a pinch, but one of the 
three is, nine times out of ten, mani- 
festly superior to the other two. In this 
state of affairs there is altogether too 
great a tendency to slight the practice 
of the two inferior kickers, and rely al- 
most entirely upon the best man. It is 
quite proper to let the best man do all 
the kicking possible in an important 
game, but it is a very short-sighted pol- 
icy to neglect the practice of the other 
two during the preliminary games. Not 
only should they have the advantage to 
be gained in the length of their kicks by 
daily practice, but they should also have 
the steadying experience to be acquired 
only in games. It may happen at any 
moment in a most important game that 
the kicking will devolve upon one of 
them on account of an accident to the 
third man, and it is, indeed, a foolhardy 
captain or coach who has not taken suf- 



lib AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

ficient forethought for this contingency. 
The principal reason why we develop so 
few really good kickers is, that coaches, 
captains, and players have given so lit- 
tle attention to the detail of that part 
of the work. Fully nine tenths of the 
men who do the kicking upon American 
teams are more natural kickers than 
practised ones. Let me explain this so 
as to be fully understood. As in box- 
ing one often sees a man who, having 
taken no lessons, and being therefore 
unable to make the most of himself, 
can yet more than hold his own against 
a more finished opponent on account of 
his natural quickness, strength, and apti- 
tude ; so in football one sees here and 
there a man who is able to do some fair 
kicking without having devoted particu- 
lar attention to it. In boxing, however, 
when a teacher takes the natural hitter 
in hand, he begins by putting him at 



THE HALF-BACK AND BACK. II7 

work Upon the rudiments of guarding, 
holding himself upon his feet, hitting 
straight, and moving firmly. He never 
undertakes to make a first-class man of 
him by merely encouraging him to go 
in harder, and increase his power with- 
out regard to the proper methods. In 
football, coaches rarely teach the kick- 
ers the first principles, but instead urge 
upon them only the necessity of con- 
stant practice in their own way. For 
this reason our kickers show all manner 
of styles, and the only wonder is that 
they kick so well in such wretchedly 
bad form. One would think that the 
increased value placed upon kicking in 
the last few years would have corrected 
this, but it has only done so in part. 
The finished kickers can still be nurt)- 
bered upon the fingers of one hand. 

While it is neither advisable nor nec- 
essary that a kicker be prevented from 



Il8 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

attempting to kick hard until he has 
mastered every detail of the swing and 
brought it to the same point of perfec- 
tion that a finished oarsman does his 
stroke, it certainly is best, in his prac- 
tice, to subordinate power to method 
until he acquire good form. 

The coach should take his man in 
hand by watching him make a half- 
dozen kicks in his own way. Then he 
should select the worst of his faults, 
and show him why it is a fault, and 
how to correct it. He should keep 
him upon this one point for a few days, 
until he is convinced that there will be 
no backsliding, and then begin upon 
the next. In this way a few weeks will 
serve to make a second-class man a good 
one, and open the w^ay for his becom- 
ing something out of the ordinary run 
in another season. 

In judging the faults of a kicker, the 



• THE HALF-BACK AND EACK. II9 

coach should note just where he gets 
his power on, what is the position of 
his leg and foot upon the swing, and 
what part of the foot strikes the ball. 
These are the principal points, and de- 
serve the first attention. Regarding 
the first of these, his power should be 
put on just as his foot has passed the 
lowest part of the arc in w^hich it swings, 
and it should meet the ball in the up- 
\vard sweep very soon after passing this 
point. The position of his leg and foot 
is to be next noted, and the *' snap 
the w^hip " phrase is as good a one to 
convey the idea as any that can be 
adopted. As the leg begins to swing 
the knee is bent and the body pitched 
a little forward, so that the weight of 
the kick seems to start from the hip 
and travel down the leg as it straight- 
ens, reaching the foot just as it meets 
the ball, as above mentioned. As for 



I20 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

the third point, the ball, when punted, 
should be struck by the instep and not 
by the toe. In a drop-kick and a place- 
kick the ball is met by the toe, and the 
sweep is made with " a longer leg," as 
the expression has it ; that is, the foot 
swings nearer — in fact, almost along the 
ground. 

All these three points can be most 
clearly illustrated by noting the effect 
of departures from them. If the power 
is not put on as above described, the 
man will simply send the ball along the 
ground, or will hook it up, merely toss- 
ing it with his foot instead of driving it. 
These two are the extremes, of course ; 
but they illustrate where the power is 
lost or wasted. If the leg be not swung 
in proper position, the ball will be sim- 
ply spatted with the foot, the only force 
coming from the knee. Finally, if the 
ball be not met with the proper part of 



THE HALF-BACK AND BACK. 121 

the foot it may snap downwards off the 
toe, or be merely bunted by the ankle. 
There is still another thing to be watched, 
which, while not the kick proper, really 
belongs to it as much as the swing of the 
leg. It is the way in which the ball is 
dropped to the foot from the hand or 
hands. The usual tendency of beginners, 
and many half-backs who could hardly 
be classed in that category, is to toss the 
ball from the hand ; that is, to give it a 
motion up from thehand, which, however 
slight, causes much valuable time to be 
lost. The ball should always be dropped 
to the foot, the distance between the hand 
and foot being made as short as possible. 
The hand should be merely withdrawn 
just at the proper moment, and with 
practice it is not difficult to make the 
entire transfer from hand to foot so rap- 
id as to almost eliminate an}/ danger of 
having the ball stopped or struck during 



122 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

that part of the play. In drop-kicking 
the fall is necessarily greater, but it 
should never be a toss even then. There 
has been no little argument as to wheth- 
er the ball should be held in one or both 
hands by a player about to kick, and such 
are the examples of good kickers arrayed 
on both sides that we cannot fairly say 
that either way is the only right way. 
If a player has become so accustomed to 
the two-hand method as to make him 
uncomfortable and inaccurate if forced 
to the one-hand w^ay, it is hardly ad- 
visable to make the change. But any 
player who is taken early enough can 
be taught to drop the ball with one 
hand, to his great advantage in both 
quickness and ability to kick from tight 
quarters or around an opponent. 

The entire series of motions, there- 
fore, which go to make up a w^ell-per- 
formed kick should be in the coach's 



THE HALF-BACK AND BACK. 1 23 

mind just as the separate parts of an 
oarsman's stroke are in the boating 
nian's mind when coaching a crew. 
The ball dropped, not tossed ; the leg 
well swung, the power coming from 
both leg and hip with all the advan- 
tage that the poise of the body may 
add ; the foot meeting the ball with the 
top of the instep on a punt, with the 
toe on a drop, and in either case just 
after passing the lowest point of the 
arc of swing, rather later on a punt than 
a drop, because the ground helps the lat- 
ter to rise, while the rise of the former 
must come entirely from the foot. The 
next step in the education of the kicker 
is the side swing. The ball cannot be 
kicked as far when met directly in 
front of tlie kicker — his leg swinging 
straight, as it would in taking a step 
in running — as it can be kicked by 
taking a side sweep with the leg and 



124 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

body, the hips acting as a sort of 
pivot. 

One of the most common false ideas 
regarding this side-kick is, that it is not 
performed with the same part of the 
foot as the straight punt, but that the 
ball is struck by the side of the foot. 
Of course, this is all wrong. The foot 
meets the ball as fairly and directly as 
it does in the ordinary straight kick, 
and the ball impinges upon the top of 
the instep just as before, the word 
'' side " referring to the swing of the 
leg and position of the body only. 

All the suggestions thus far have been 
applicable to both half-backs and back, 
but before bringing the chapter to an 
end it is well to note a few of the spe- 
cial features of the full-back's position. 
The place originally was that of a goal- 
tend, but with the increase of the ag- 
gressive system of defence his duties 



THE HALF-BACK AND BACK. 1 25 

have become more those of a third half- 
back. Other things being equal, it is 
eminently proper to select as a full-back 
an exceptionally strong tackier ; but as 
for placing tackling ability above that of 
kicking, that is a mistake which might 
have been made six years ago, but of 
which no coach or captain would to-day 
be guilty. 

The importance of the position is rap- 
idly growing, and under the present 
rules there is no doubt that the time 
has come when the selection of the 
three men behind the line should be 
after this fashion — namely, picking out 
the three best half-backs, all things con- 
sidered, then selecting that one of the 
three whose kicking is the best, and 
making him the third half or full back. 
After the man has been in this way 
chosen there will devolve upon him 
certain duties which do not commonly 



126 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

fall to the lot of the other two half- 
backs. Chiefest among these is the 
duty of making a running return of a 
kick, something for which the opportu- 
nity seldom offers, but which it is very 
important that a full-back should be able 
to do upon occasion. The opponents 
have sent a punt down towards him, 
which he secures while the opponents 
are still some yards away from him, 
although they are coming down rapid- 
ly. In this case, a thoroughly finished 
player will not only gain a few steps 
before he takes his kick, but he will 
take that kick on the run, sometimes 
dodging the first man before taking 
the kick. A full-back who can do this 
and never lose his kick is the greatest 
kind of a treasure for any team, and it 
is worth a captain's while to devote a 
good bit of attention to the full-back's 
perfecting this special feature of his play. 



THE HALF-BACK AND BACK. 1 27 

He will also be likely to have the long 
place-kicking to do. In fact, it is prop- 
er to practise him at this, because, if he 
be the best punter among the men be- 
hind the line, he can be made the long- 
est place-kicker, and few realize the great 
advantage of these long place-kicks to a 
team upon occasion of fair catches, es- 
pecially when a favoring wind brings 
the possibility of a field-kick goal. 

Tackling, when it does fall to the lot 
of a full-back, comes with an importance 
the like of which no other player is ever 
called upon to face. It usually means 
a touch-down if he misses. For prac- 
tice of this kind it is well to play the 
'varsity back once in a w^hile upon the 
scrub side. This is likely to improve 
the speed of his kicking also. 



SIGNALS 



When Rugby football was first adopt- 
ed in this country, there was a strong 
feeling that it would never make prog- 
ress against what had been known as 
the American game. This old-fashioned 
game was much more like the British 
Association in a rather demoralized state. 
Not only was there no such thing as off- 
side, but one of the chief features consist- 
ed of batting the ball with the fist, at 
which many became sufficiently expert 
to drive the ball almost as far as the 
ordinary punter now kicks it. There 
was very little division of players by 
name, although they strung out along 
the field, and one (known as the "pea- 
nutter" — Vv'hy, no one knows) played in 



132 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

the enemies' goal. Coming to players 
accustomed to this heterogeneous ming- 
ling, it is no great wonder that the first 
days of Rugby were characterized by 
even less system than that displayed in 
the old game. 

The first division of players was into 
rushers, half-backs, and a goal-tend. The 
rushers had but little regard for their rel- 
ative positions in the line ; and as for their 
duties, one can easily imagine how little 
they corresponded with those of the rush- 
er of to-day when it is said that it was 
by no means unusual for one of them to 
pick up the ball and punt it. 

The snap-back and quarter-back play 
soon defined these two positions, and 
shortly after the individual rush-line po- 
sitions became distinct, both as regards 
location and duties. All this was an era 
of development of general play with but 
few particular combinations or marks ot 



SIGNALS. 133 

strategy. If a man made a run, he made 
it for the most part wherever he saw the 
best chance after receiving the ball, and 
he made it unaided to any degree by 
his comrades. If the ball v\^as kicked, 
it was at the option of the man receiv- 
ing it, and the forwards did not know 
whether he would kick or run. 

It was at this point that the demand 
for signals first showed itself. The rush- 
ers began to insist upon it that they must 
be told in some way whether the play 
was to be a kick or a run. They main- 
tained quite stoutly and correctly that 
there was no reason in their chasing 
down the field when the half-backs did 
not kick. As a matter of fact, the for- 
wards even went so far as to contend 
that the running-game should be en- 
tirely dropped in favor of one based 
upon long kicks well followed up. Fail- 
ing to establish this opinion, they nev- 



134 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

ertheless brought it about that they 
should be told by some signal what the 
play was to be, and so be spared useless 
running. This was probably the first of 
the present complicated system of sig- 
nals, although at about the same time 
some teams took up the play of making 
a rather unsatisfactory opening for a 
runner in the line, and made use of a 
signal to indicate the occasions when 
this was to be done. The signalling of 
the quarter to the centre-rush as to when 
the ball should be played antedated this 
somewhat, but can hardly be classed with 
signals for the direction of the play itself. 

To-day the teams which meet to decide 
the championship are brought up to the 
execution of at least twenty-five different 
plays (some teams have actually had near- 
ly a hundred), each of which is called for 
by a certain distinct signal of its own. 

The first signals given were " word 



SIGNALS. 135 

signals ;" that is, a word or a sentence 
called out so that the entire team might 
hear it and understand whether a kick 
or a run was to be made. Then, when 
signals became more general, "sign sig- 
nals" (that is, some motion of the hand 
or arm to indicate the play) were brought 
in and became for a time more popular 
than the word signals, particularly upon 
fields where the audience pressed close 
upon the lines, and their enthusiastic 
cheering at times interfered with hear- 
ing word signals. Of late years nu- 
merical combinations have become most 
popular, and as the crowd is kept at 
such a distance from the side lines as to 
make it possible for teams to hear those 
signals, they have proven highly satis- 
factory. The numerical system, while 
it can be readily understood by the side 
giving the signal, because they know 
the key, is far more difificult for the 



136 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

opponents to solve than either the old 
word signals or signs. Still, the inge- 
nuity of captains is generally taxed to 
devise systems that shall so operate as 
never to confuse their own men and 
yet completely mystify the opponents 
throughout the game. Clever forwards 
almost always succeed in interpreting 
correctly one or two of the signals most 
frequently used, in spite of the difficulty 
apparent in the solution of such prob- 
lems. The question as to Avho should 
give the signals is still a disputed one, 
although the general opinion is that 
the quarter-back should perform this 
duty. There is no question as to the 
propriety of the signals emanating from 
that point, but the discussion is as to 
whether the captain or the quarter 
should direct the play. Of course all is 
settled if the captain is himself a quarter- 
back, but even when he is not he ought 



SIGNALS. 137 

to be able to so direct his quarter pre- 
vious to the actual conflict as to make it 
perfectly satisfactory to have the signals 
come from the same place as the ball. 
It is in that direction that the eyes 
and attention of every player are more 
or less turned, and hence signals there 
given are far more certain to be ob- 
served. Moreover, it is sometimes, and 
by no means infrequently, necessary to 
change a play even after the signal has 
been given. This, if the quarter be 
giving the signals, is not at all difficult, 
but is decidedly confusing when coming 
from some other point in the line. 

The important fact to be remembered 
in selecting a system of signals is that 
it is bad policy to confuse your own 
team in the attempt to mystify your 
opponents. A captain must therefore 
choose such a set of signals as he can 
be sure of making his own team com- 



138 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

prehend without difficulty and without 
mistake. When he is sure of that, he 
can think how far it is possible for him 
to disguise these from his opponents. 
Among the teams which contest for 
championship honors it is unusual to 
find any which are not prepared for 
emergencies by the possession either 
of two sets of signals, or of such changes 
in the manner of giving them as to 
make it amount to the same thing. 
Considering the way the game is played 
at the present time, this preparation is 
advisable, for one can hardly overesti- 
mate the demoralizing effect it would 
have upon any team to find their oppo- 
nents in possession of a complete under- 
standing of the signals which were di- 
recting the play against them. 

While it is well for the captain or 
coach to arrange in his own mind early 
m the season such a basis for a code of 



SIGNALS. 



139 



signals as to render it adaptable to al- 
most indefinite increase in the number 
of plays, it is by no means necessary to 
have the team at the outset understand 
this basis. In fact, it is just as well to 
start them off very modestly upon two 
or three signals which they should learn, 
and of which they should make use un- 
til the captain sees fit to advance them 
a peg. 

If, for instance, the captain decides 
to make use of a numerical system, 
he cannot do better to accustom his 
men to listening and following instruc- 
tions than to give them three signals, 
something like this : One-two-three, to 
indicate that the ball is to be passed to 
the right half-back, who will endeavor to 
run around the left end ; four-five-six, 
that the left half will try to run around 
the right end ; and seven-eight-nine, 
that the back will kick. The scrub side 



14-0 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

will probably '' get on" to these signals 
in short order, and will make it pleasant 
at the ends for the half-backs ; but this 
will be the best kind of practice in team 
work, and will do no harm. After a day 
or two of this it will be time to make 
changes in the combination of numbers, 
not only with an idea of deceiving the 
scrub side, but also to quicken the wits 
of the 'Varsity team. Taking the 
same signals as a basis, the first, or 
signal for the right half-back to try on 
the left end, was one-two-three — the 
sum of these numbers is six. Take 
that, then, as the key to this signal, and 
any numbers the sum of which equals 
six will be a signal for this play. For 
instance, three-three, or four-two, two- 
three-one — any of these would serve to 
designate this play. Similarly, as the sig- 
nal for the left half at the right end was 
foiir-five-six, or a total of fifteen, any 



SIGNALS. 141 

numbers which added make fifteen — • 
as six-six-three, seven-eight, or five-four- 
six — would be interpreted in this way. 
Finally, the signal for a kick having 
been seven-eight-nine, or a sum of 
twenty-four, any numbers aggregating 
that total would answer equally well. 

A few days of this practice will fit the 
men for any further developments upon 
the same lines, and accustom them to 
listening and thinking at the same time. 
The greatest difficulty experienced by 
both captains and coaches since the sig- 
nals and plays became so complicated 
has been to teach green players not to 
stop playing while they listen to and 
think out a signal. By the end of the 
season players are so accustomed to 
the signals that all this hesitation dis- 
appears, and the signal is so familiar as 
to amount to a description of the play 
in so many words. 



142 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

The other two methods of signalling 
by the use of words rather than numbers, 
and signs given by certain movements, 
although they have now given way in 
most teams to numbers, are still made 
use of, and have merit enough to deserve 
a line or two. The word-signal was 
usually given in the form of a sentence, 
the whole or any part of which would 
indicate the play. As, for instance, to 
indicate a kick, the sentence " Play up 
sharp, Charlie." If the quarter, or who- 
ever gave the signals, should call out, 
" Play up," or ^' Play up sharp," or 
''Play," or " Charlie," he w^ould in each 
instance be giving the signal for a kick. 
Sign-signals are more difficult to dis- 
guise, but are none the less very effec- 
tive, especially where there is a great 
amount of noise close to the ropes. A 
good example of the sign-signal is the 
touching of some part of the body with 



SIGNALS. 143 

the hand. For instance, half-back run- 
ning would be denoted by placing the 
hand on the hip, the right hip for the 
left half, and the left hip for the right 
half. A kick would be indicated by 
placing the hand upon the neck. Par- 
ticular care should be exercised when 
sign-signals are to be used that the ones 
selected, while similar to the acts per- 
formed naturally by the quarter in 
stooping over to receive the ball, are 
never exactly identical with these mo- 
tions, else there will likely enough be 
confusion. 

No matter what method of signalling 
be used, there is one important feature 
to be regarded, and that is, some means 
of altering the play after a signal has 
been given. This is, of course, a very 
simple thing, and the usual plan is to 
have some word which means that the 
signal already given is to be considered 



144 ■ AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

void, and a new signal will be given in 
its place. There should also be some 
way of advising the team of a change 
from one set of signals to another, should 
such a move become necessary. It is 
very unwise not to be prepared for such 
an emergency, because if a captain is 
obliged to have time called and person- 
ally advise his team one by one of such 
a change, the opponents are quite sure 
to see it and to gain confidence from 
the fact that they have been clever 
enough to make such a move necessary. 



TRAINING 



At the present advanced athletic era 
there are very few who do not under- 
stand that a certain amount of prepa- 
ration is absolutely essential to success 
in any physical effort requiring strength 
and endurance. The matter of detail 
is, however, not faced until one actually 
becomes a captain or a coach, and, as 
such, responsible for the condition, not 
of himself alone, but of a team of fif- 
teen or twenty men. 

Experience regarding his own needs 
will have taught him the value of care 
and work in this line ; but, unless he 
differ greatly from the ordinary captain 
upon first assuming the duties of that 
position, his knowledge of training will 



148 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

be confined to an understanding of his 
own requirements, coupled Avith the 
handed-down traditions of the preced- 
ing captains and teams. When he finds 
himself in this position and considers 
what lines of training he shall lay down 
for his team, unless he be an inordinate- 
ly conceited man he will wish he had 
made more of a study of this art of 
preparation, especially in the direction 
most suited to the requirements of his 
own particular sport. 

Many inquiries from men about to 
undertake the training of a team have 
led me to believe that, even at the 
expense of going over old ground, it 
will be well in this book to map out a 
few of the important features of a course 
of training. It should go without say- 
ing that there are infinite variations in 
systems of this kind ; but if a man will 
carry in mind the reasons rather than 



TRAINING. 14^ 

the rules, he has always a test to apply 
which will enable him to make the most 
of whatever system he adopts. 

He should remember that training 
ought to be a preparation by means of 
which his men will at a certain time 
arrive at the best limits of their mus- 
cular strength and activity, at the same 
time preserving that equilibrium most 
conducive to normal health. Such a 
preparation can be accomplished by the 
judicious use of the ordinary agents of 
well-being — exercise, diet, sleep, and 
cleanliness. 

One can follow out the reasons for or 
against any particular point in a system 
rather better if he cares to see why these 
agents act towards health and strength. 

Exercise is a prime requisite, because 
the human mechanism, unlike the inani- 
mate machine, gains strength from use. 
Muscular movement causes disintegra- 



150 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

tion and death of substance, but at the 
same time there is an increased flow of 
blood to the part, and that means an in- 
creased supply of nourishment and in- 
creased activity in rebuilding. As Mac- 
Laren has expressed it, strength means 
newness of the muscle. The amount 
and quality of this exercise will be treat- 
ed of later in this chapter. 

In considering the matter of Diet, a 
captain or coach should think of this 
question not according to the tradition 
of his club, nor according to his own 
idiosyncrasies. He should regard the 
general principle of not depriving a man 
of anything to which he is accustomed 
and which agrees with him. Of course, 
it is advisable to do without such arti- 
cles of food as w^ould be injurious to the 
majority of the men, even though there 
might be one or two to whom they 
would do no harm. Men should enjoy 



TRAINING. 151 

their food, and it should be properly 
served. I remember once being asked 
my opinion regarding a certain team 
at the time in training, and I expressed 
the conviction that something was 
wrong with their diet. The team, as a 
whole, were not seriously affected, but 
some three or four were manifestly out 
of sorts. I heard the coach go over the 
bill of fare, and it sounded all right. I 
then decided to take dinner with them 
and see if I could discover the trouble. 
One meal was sufficient, for it was a 
meal! The beef — and an excellent 
roast it was, too— was literally served in 
junks, such as one might throw to a dog. 
The dishes were dirty, so was the cloth. 
Vegetables were dumped on to the 
plates in a mess, and each one grabbed 
for what he wanted. Some of the men 
might have been brought up to eat at 
such a table, still others were not suffi- 



152 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

ciently sensitive to have their appetites 
greatly impaired by anything, but the 
three or four who were '^ off" were boys 
whose home life had accustomed them 
to a different way of dining, and their 
natures revolted. So, too, did their ap- 
petites. As it was then too late to cor- 
rect the manners of the mess, I simply 
advised sending these men elsewhere 
to board, and they speedily came into 
shape. I cannot too strongly advocate 
good service at a training table. The 
men should enjoy their dinners, should 
eat them slowly, and should be encour- 
aged to be as long about it as they will. 
As food is to repair the waste, it should 
be generous in quantity and taken when 
the man will not, from being over-tired, 
have lost his appetite. Sometimes a 
team is not overworked, but worked too 
late in the day, so that the men rush to 
the table almost directly from the field, 



TRAINING. 153 

and fail to feel hungry, while within an 
hour they would have eaten with a zest. 
This course persevered in for several 
days will show its folly in a general fall- 
ing-off in the strength as well as the 
weight of the men. To train a football 
team should be, in the matter of the 
diet at least, the simplest matter com- 
pared with training for other sports, be- 
cause the season of the year is so favor- 
able to good condition. 

Crews and ball nines have oftentimes 
the trial of exceptionally hot and ex- 
hausting weather to face, while a foot- 
ball team, after the few warm days of 
September are passed, enjoy the very 
best of bracing weather — weather which 
will give almost any man who spends 
his time in out-door work a healthy, 
hearty appetite. In order that any 
captain or coach reading this book may 
feel that, while it offers several courses 



154 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

of diet, it would emphatically present 
the fact that there is no hard-and-fast 
system of diet that must be religiously 
followed, I submit a variety of tables, 
showing some old as well as new school 
diets. None of them are very bad, sev- 
eral are excellent ; and I don't think that 
a captain or coach would be called upon 
to draw his pencil through very many 
of the items enumerated. 





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162 



SYSTEM OF JACKSON AND GODBOLD 

Breakfast. — Stale or whole -meal 
bread, or toast, a little butter, plenty of 
marmalade if you like, but not jam. Ba- 
con and eg-gs, or chops or steaks, with wa- 
tercress if obtainable. To those who like 
it, a basin of oatmeal porridge, propei^ly 
made^ taken with pure milk about an hour 
before breakfast, is an excellent thing, 
and has a very beneficial effect upon 
the stomach, but it should not be taken 
every day. It is better to miss it every 
third day, or to take it regularly for a 
fortnight and then omit it from the next 
week's diet, as the too frequent use of 
it is rather injurious to the skin of some 
persons. Tea — not too strong — is better 
than coffee. Good ripe fruit is a cap- 



164 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

ital adjunct to the breakfast-table, and 
is an excellent article of food. 

Dinner. — Lamb, mutton, beef, fowl 
(tender and boiled), varied by fish, of 
which haddock, whiting, and soles are 
the best, with potatoes (well boiled, and 
not much of them), and well -cooked 
vegetables, followed by a small allow- 
ance of light farinaceous pudding or 
stewed fruit, will be a good, Vv^holesome 
diet. If you want bread, have it stale. 
Never eat new bread. Avoid all sauces, 
or made dishes, and adhere to plain food 
only. One thing we would particular- 
ly impress upon the reader, and that is 
never to take his exercise immediately 
before or after meals, nothing is more in- 
jurious, or likely to produce indigestion, 
and its concomitant evils. Some author- 
ities abjure the use of sugar, but taken in 
moderation it is not injurious. A well- 
known champion of our acquaintance, 



TRAINING. 165 

when in the pink of condition, was wont 
to amuse himself by eating the contents 
of a sugar basin, if one were inadvert- 
ently left near him, and without feeling 
any ill effects from so doing. Our read- 
ers need not follow his example, for al- 
though it might suit him, it probably 
would not agree with them. We have 
said, take sugar in moderation. Now, in 
this last word lies all the lectures one 
can give on this subject. Be moderate 
in all things, one might say, but above 
all things be moderate in the use of all 
edibles not actually necessary to sup- 
port the increased exertion which a man 
in training is called upon to perform. 
No liquid should be taken except with, 
or just after meals, but we would not 
advise stinting the quantity too much. 
In summer three or four pints, and in 
winter two or three pints per diem 
would be about the quantity. Never 



1 66 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

drink just before exercise, and it is bet- 
ter not to drink just before going to 
bed. In fact, the less one has to digest 
when retiring for sleep the better, and 
be sure not to drink tea late at night. 

TEA; or SUPPER, should be taken at 
least two hours before bedtime, and we 
would allow a small chop, or some light 
iish, bread, and very little butter, with 
some ripe fruit. The best meal to take 
before a race, and which should be taken 
about two hours before starting-time, is 
the lean of mutton-chops and a little 
dry toast. We have said that no liquids 
should be taken except at meal-times ; 
but we do not intend to state that if a 
man be very thirsty he may not touch 
them. If he does so, it must be a very 
small quantity. Thirst can often be as- 
suaged by rinsing the mouth out with 
cold water, and this is by far the better 
plan if it is efficacious. 



A COMMON-SENSE SYSTEM 

One author says : " Rise at six ; 
bathe ; take about two ounces (a small 
cup) of coffee with milk : this is really 
a stimulating soup. Then light exer- 
cise, chiefly devoted to lungs ; a little 
rest ; the breakfast of meat, bread, or 
oatmeal, vegetables, with no coffee ; an 
hour's rest. Then the heaviest exer- 
cise of the day. This is contrary to 
rule ; but I believe the heaviest exer- 
cise should be taken before the heav- 
iest meal ; a rest before dinner. This 
meal, if breakfast be taken at seven 
or eight, should be at one or two, 
not leaving a longer interval than five 
hours between the meals. At din- 
ner, again meat, vegetables, bread, per- 



1 68 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

haps a half -pint of malt liquor, no 
sweets. Then a longer rest ; exercise 
till five. Supper light — bread, milk, 
perhaps with an egg. Half an hour 
later a cup of tea, and bed at nine." 



J. B. O'REILLY 

Seven o'clock is a good time for an 
athlete in training to rise. He ought 
to get a good dry- rubbing, and then 
sponge his body with cold water, or 
have a shower-bath, with a thorough 
rubbing afterwards. He will then go 
out to exercise before breakfast, not to 
run hard, as is commonly taught, but to 
walk briskly for an hour, while exercis- 
ing his lungs in deep-breathing. Before 
this walk, an egg in a cup of tea, or 
something of the kind, should be taken. 

The breakfast need not always con- 
sist of a broiled mutton-chop or cutlet ; 
a broiled steak, broiled chicken, or 
broiled fish, or some of each, may be 
taken with tea or coffee. 



170 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

Dinner may be far more varied than 
is usually allowed by the trainer's '' sys- 
tem." Any kind of butcher's meat, 
plainly cooked, with a variety of fresh 
vegetables, may be taken, with ordinary 
light puddings, stewed fruit, but no 
pastry. A good time for dinner is one 
o'clock. 

An American athlete, when thirsty, 
ought to have only one drink — water. 
The climate and the custom in England 
favor the drinking of beer or claret ; 
but, beyond question, the best drink for 
a man in training is pure water. After 
dinner, rest, but no dozing or siesta. 
This sort of rest only spoils digestion, 
and makes men feel slack and " limp." 

Supper, at six o'clock, should not be 
a second dinner; but neither should it 
consist of '' slops " or gruel. The ath- 
lete ought to be in bed by ten o'clock, 
in a room with open window, and a 



TRAINING. 171 

draught through the room, If possible, 
though not across the bed. 

The American football captain or 
coach should bear in mind, when read- 
ing these various systems, that the use 
of ale and port seems to be much bet- 
ter borne by those who live in the Eng- 
lish climate than upon this side the 
water. 

Also, that stiff exercise before break- 
fast has not been proven advantageous 
to our athletes except as a flesh-reducer, 
and then only in exceptionally vigorous 
constitutions. 

Also, that tea is not as popular with 
us as with the men who train in Eng- 
land. 



SLEEP AND CLEANLINESS 

To come to the third agent of health 
enumerated some pages back, Sleep. 
As a rule, it is not a difficult matter to 
see that members of a football team 
take the requisite amount of sleep. 
There are occasions, as in college, when 
some society event of unusual impor- 
tance tempts the men to sit up late, but 
with such exceptions as these there is 
no great difficulty experienced in mak- 
ing the majority of the men keep good 
hours. And this is growing more and 
more simple as athletics become more 
general, for they take the place of much 
of the dissipation which was formerly 
the only outlet for the superabundant 
animal spirits of young men. In the 



TRAINING. 1^3 

case, however, of the occasional candi- 
date for the team who comes under the 
captain's eye as inchned to late hours, 
there must be the strictest kind of dis- 
cipline shown. Such a man is the very 
one whose stamina will be affected after 
a while by lack of sleep, and that too at 
a time when the rest of the men are near- 
ing the perfection of condition. Thus he 
will be found falling off at the very time 
when it is a most serious matter very like- 
ly to fill his position with a new man. 
Eight or nine hours sleep should be in- 
sisted upon, and that sleep should be 
taken w^ith regularity. In fact, not only 
the sleep, but the meals and the exercise, 
should all be made as nearly regular, re- 
garding hours, as possible. Men should 
have separate rooms, and particularly 
when off upon trips they should not 
sleep together. Plenty of fresh air 
should be admitted to the sleeping- 



174 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

room, but draughts are to be avoided. 
This is not because every time the air 
blows upon a man he is Hable to con- 
tract a severe cold, for the chances are 
against this, but because there are times 
when he is particularly prone to such 
an accident, and if he is in the habit of 
sleeping without regard to draughts it 
is not likely that he will take precau- 
tions then. If a man has, for instance, 
played an especially stiff game and 
upon a muggy and exhausting day, he 
will undoubtedly turn in thoroughly 
tired out, and perhaps still somewhat 
heated. Now if he, when in that state, 
sleeps in a draught, he will probably 
find himself very lame in the morning, 
even though he escape other more seri- 
ous consequences. Just one more word 
of caution regarding sleep, and that is 
in the matter of obtaining a good 
night's rest just before the important 



TRAINING. 175 

match of the season. To insure this is 
to do much towards securing the best 
work of which the men are capable 
from the team upon the following day. 

First and foremost, they should not be 
allowed to talk about the game or the 
signals or anything connected with foot- 
ball during that evening. If possible, 
they should do something to entirely 
divert their minds from all thought of 
the game. Nor should they be hustled 
off to bed an hour or two earlier than 
usual. Rather ought it to be a half-hour 
later, for then the chances are that the 
men drop off to sleep immediately in- 
stead of tossing about, thinking of the 
exciting event of the morrow. 

Finally, as to overtrained men, and 
that restlessness and inability to sleep 
that almost always comes with the 
worst cases of this kind. There is but 
one thing to do with a man when he 



176 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

" goes fine " to this extent, and that is 
to sever his connection with the team 
for a time. If it is early in the season, 
there is some chance of his recuperating 
rapidly enough to still become service- 
able. If it is late, there is no hope of 
this. In either case he must neither 
play, eat, nor spend his time with the 
members of the team. He can do al- 
most anything else ; he can go and 
watch the crew row or the ball nine 
play ; he can study or read ; he can, and 
in fact should, do everything possible 
to disassociate himself from football 
and violent exercise for a time, and, un- 
less the trouble has gone too far, it will 
only be a couple of Aveeks before he 
will find himself coming out of it all 
right, and among the first signs will be 
good, refreshing sleep. 

To pass now to the fourth of our 
agents for health, Cleanliness. It is fort- 



TRAINING. 177 

unately seldom necessary to argue the 
advantages of the ''tub" or "sponge 
bath " to our football players, because 
they are usually accustomed to it. A 
daily splashing has been their ordinary 
habit. It is well to mention also that a 
fortnightly warm bath may be indulged 
in to advantage. But with the present 
understanding of all these advantages, 
the wisest remarks that can be made 
are cautions as to indiscretions in the 
use of baths. In the first place, one 
bath a day is enough, and any other 
should be a mere sponging and rub- 
bing. Men who indulge in a tub in 
the morning and then spend another 
fifteen minutes in a plunge after prac- 
tice in the afternoon get too much of it. 
Again, the habit of spending a long time 
under the shower every day is a mis- 
take. It feels so refreshing after a hard 
practice that a man is tempted to stay 



1 78 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

too long, and it does him no good. The 
best and safest plan is to take a light, 
quick sponge bath in the morning imme- 
diately upon rising, and then, after prac- 
tice in the afternoon, to take just a mo- 
ment under the shower, and follow it by 
a good rubbing. This, with the fort- 
nightly warm bath, will be all that a 
man may do to advantage. 



A CHAPTER FOR SPECTATORS 



To those who have never played the 
game of football, but who chance to 
open the covers of this book, a short ex- 
planation of the divisions and duties of 
the players will not be out of place. For 
these this chapter is added. 

The game is played by two teams, of 
eleven men each, upon a field 330 feet 
long and 160 feet wide, at either end of 
which are goal-posts with a cross-bar. 

The ball, which is like a large leather 
Ggg, is placed in the centre of this field, 
and each team endeavors to drive it in 
the direction of the opponents' goal-line, 
where any scoring must be done. Goals 
and touch-downs are the only points 
which count, and these can be made 
only as follows : 



1 82 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

A goal can be obtained by kicking the 
ball in any way except a punt (a certain 
kind of kick where the ball is dropped 
by a player and kicked before touching 
the ground) over the cross-bar of the op- 
ponents' goal. A touch-down is obtained 
by touching the ball to the ground be- 
hind the line of the goal. So, in either 
case, the ball must cross the end of the 
field in some way to make any score. 
The sole object, then, of all the strug- 
gles which take place in the field is 
to advance the ball to a position such 
that scoring is possible. A firm grasp 
of this idea usually simplifies matters 
very much for the casual spectator. 

The object of the white lines which 
cross the field at every five yards is 
merely to assist the referee in determin- 
ing hovv^ far the ball moves at a time ; 
for there is a rule which states that a 
team must advance the ball five yards 



CHAPTER FOR SPECTATORS. 1 83 

in three attempts or retreat with it 
twenty. If they do not succeed in do- 
ing this, the other side take possession 
of the ball, and in their turn try to ad- 
vance it. 

There are certain rules which govern 
the methods of making these advances, 
any infringement of which constitutes 
what is called a foul, and entails a pen- 
alty upon the side making it. 

Any player can run with the ball or 
kick it if, when he receives it, he is '' on 
side " — that is, between the ball and his 
own goal-line. He may not take the 
ball if he is ^^off side" — that is, be- 
tween the ball and his opponents' goal- 
line — until an adversary has touched 
the ball. 

Whenever a player running with the 
ball is held, the referee blows his whistle, 
and a man of his side then places the ball 
on the ground and snaps it back. This 



184 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

puts it in play, and is called a scrim- 
mage, and this scrimmage is the most 
commonly recurring features of the 
game. 

For the purposes of advancing the 
ball or repelling the attack of the op- 
ponents it has proved advisable for a 
captain to divide his eleven men into 
two general divisions : the forwards and 
backs. The forwards, of whom there 
are seven, are usually called rushers, and 
five at least of them make practically a 
straight line across the field when the 
ball is put in play on a " down." Next 
behind them is the quarter-back, who 
does the passing of the ball to one or 
another of the players, while just behind 
him are the two half-backs and the back, 
with often near them two men properly 
of the rush line. 

The following definitions will also aid 
the spectator in understanding many of 



CHAPTER FOR SPECTATORS. 1 85 

the expressions used by the devotees of 
the sport: 

A drop-kick is made by letting the ball 
fall from the hands, and kicking it at the 
very instant it rises from the ground. 

A place-kick is made by kicking the ball 
after it has been placed on the ground. 

K punt is made by letting the ball fall 
from the hands, and kicking it before it 
touches the ground. 

Kick-off is a place-kick from the centre 
of the field of play. 

Kick-out is a drop - kick, place - kick, or 
punt, by a player of the side which has 
touched the ball down in their own goal, or 
into whose touch-in-goal the ball has gone. 

In touch means out of bounds. 

h. fair is putting the ball in play, from 
touch. 

Afoul is any violation of a rule. 



l86 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

A touch-down is made when the ball is car- 
ried, kicked, or passed across the goal-line 
and there held, either in goal or touch-in-goal. 

A safety toiich-doiun is made when a play- 
er, guarding his goal, receives the ball from 
a player of his own side, and touches it 
down behind his goal-line, or carries the 
ball across his own goal-line and touches it 
down, or puts the ball into his own touch- 
in-goal. 

A touch-back is made when a player 
touches the ball to the ground behind his 
own goal, the impetus wdiich sent the ball 
across the line having been received from 
an opponent. 

A fair catch is a catch made direct from a 
kick by one of the opponents, provided the 
catcher make a mark with his heel at the 
spot where he made the catch. 

Foul interference is using the hands or 
arms in any way to obstruct or hold a 
player who has not the ball. 



CHAPTER FOR SPECTATORS. 187 

The penalty for fouls and violation of 
rules, except otherwise provided, is a down 
for the other side ; or, if the side making 
the foul has not the ball, ten yards to the 
opponents. 

The following is the value of each point 
in the scoring : 

Goal obtained by touch-down, . 6 
Goal from field kick, .... 5 
Touch-down failing goal, ... 4 
Safety by opponents, .... 2 

The rules which bear most directly 
upon the play are : 

The time of a game is seventy minutes, 
each side playing thirty-five minutes from 
each goal. There is ten minutes' intermis- 
sion between the two halves, and the game 
is decided by the score of even halves. 

The ball is kicked off at the beginning of 
each half; and whenever a goal has been 
obtained, the side which has lost it kicks 
off. 



l88 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. . 

A player may throw or pass the ball hi 
any direction except towards opponents' 
goal. If the ball be batted or thrown for- 
ward, it shall go down on the spot to oppc 
nents. 

If a player having the ball be tackled and 
the ball fairly held, the referee blows his 
whistle and some player of the side having 
the ball puts it down for a scrimmage. If, 
in three consecutive fairs and downs, 
unless the ball cross the goal-line, a team 
shall not have advanced the ball five or 
taken it back twenty yards, it shall go to 
the opponents on the spot of the fourth 
down. 

If the ball goes into touch, wdiether it 
bounds back or not, a player on the side 
which touches it down must bring it to the 
spot where the line was crossed, and there 
either touch the ball in the field of play, 
with both hands, at right angles to the 
touch-line, and then kick it, or walk out 
with it at Y\9;ht an2:les to touch-line, anv dis- 



CHAPTER FOR SPECTATORS. 1 89 

tance not less than five nor more than fifteen 
yards, and there put it down for a scrim- 
mage. 

A side which has made a touch-down in 
their opponents' goal micst try at goal. 

When the ball is put in play in a scrim- 
masiefive men must be on the line of scrim- 
mage. 

Five players, not including the quarter- 
back, may be behind the line of scrim- 
mage, provided two at least be either five 
yards back or outside the positions occupied 
by the players on the end of the line. 

Only one man of the side putting the 
ball in play may be in motion, and he only 
in the direction of his own goal. 



INTERFERENCE AND WEDGE PLAY 



Since adding to the second edition 
of this book an appendix upon Team 
Play, in which I commented at some 
length upon that play known as the 
Wedge, as well as Interference, the 
progress in development of both these 
plays, and the fortunate opportunity 
offered by the publication of a third 
edition, tempts me to add a chapter 
upon the further advance upon these 
lines. To thoroughly understand In- 
terference in American football, one 
must go step by step along the line 
which our players have followed both 
in legislation and in practical develop- 
ment upon the field of play. 

The chief factor of modern football 
13 



194 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

is team play, and the point towards 
which team play is principally directed 
is the interference for the runner. The 
growth of interference was at first a 
peculiar one, for, as a matter of fact, it 
was illegal, and so recognized by cap- 
tains, players, and judges. But for all 
that, the temptation to indulge in it 
was so great and the liability to discov- 
ery so small that line-men made use of 
it with what was coming to be alarm- 
ing frequency. The rule was flat in its 
statement that a man when off side 
could not interrupt or obstruct an op- 
ponent unless he had the ball. There 
could be no mincing matters about 
this, for any man who was ahead of 
the runner was off side, and hence must 
not interrupt or obstruct the opponent. 
The trouble began in the rush - line 
when drawn up for a down. Of course 
they could not, when the ball was 



INTERFERENCE AND WEDGE PLAY. 195 

snapped back behind them, help being 
off side, and no more could they avoid 
being an interruption and obstruction 
to their opponents unless they melted 
at once into thin air. They therefore 
stood their ground. Then they went 
further : they extended their arms from 
their sides, thus making it very difficult 
to get through their ranks. But for a 
time that was the limit of their offence. 
Gradually, however, those arms took to 
hooking themselves too closely about a 
man who was near the runner, and be- 
fore long they were actually dragging 
him out of the runner's path. Up to 
this time there was almost no inter- 
ference in the open — it was all in the 
line. But it became impossible for the 
umpire to stop the practice entirely, 
because he could not draw the line be- 
tween what must be allowed and what 
should be stopped. If he ruled liter- 



196 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

ally that no man, when the ball Ava-s 
snapped behind him, could interrupt or 
obstruct an adversary, what could he 
do with the whole forward line ? Make 
them move off the field, or forbid the 
centre to snap the ball? The wisest 
course of all seemed to be to face the 
situation fairly, admit that a certain 
amount of interference was unavoida- 
ble, but place limits to that interference 
which should be clear and thoroughly 
understood by player and umpire. This 
method was adopted, and rules so al- 
tered as to make it fair for a man who 
was off side to interrupt or obstruct the 
would-be tacklers of the other side, pro- 
vided that in doing it he did not make 
use of his hands or arms. Primarily, 
this rule at once brought down to their 
sides the arms of the forwards in the 
line on a down. In fact, it was upon 
this point that a great deal of the dis- 



INTERFERENCE AND WEDGE PLAY. I97 

cusslon prior to the passage of the rule 
depended. It was even argued by one 
of the opponents of the measure that 
forwards could not protect themselves 
from injury at the hands of the charg- 
ing adversaries unless they were al- 
lowed to extend their arms and thus 
push them off. But with all the opposi- 
tion, the measure went through, and 
from it has grown one of the most sci- 
entific features of the play. Perhaps 
the simplest form of interference was in 
the tandem play, where a single man 
would precede the runner, and by charg- 
ing through the line, make an opening 
for him to follow, at the same time dis- 
tracting the attention of those about to 
tackle from the man with the ball. 

As a matter of fact, there is now al- 
most no play in the game into which 
good interference may not find an entry. 
So it comes about that one of the im- 



198 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

portant attributes of the modern coach 
is an ability to adapt all the plays of his 
team to the amount of interference of 
which they are capable. He may have 
strong and agile guards, whose weight 
is not so great as to preclude the possi- 
bihty of their getting into the interfer- 
ing line of almost every play. He may 
have some very valuable but light man, 
who can be used only to a limited ex- 
tent against heavy opponents if he is 
to be kept fresh for his own individual 
work. It is no uncommon mistake 
made by captains at present to thus ex- 
haust a light, dashing man, by using him 
too injudiciously in heavy interference, 
thereby rendering him unfit for special 
work. Of course every coach and captain 
knows better than to put a small quarter 
up into the peak of a w^edge, to be smashed 
into disability by the charging heavy 
weights of the opponents, but there are 



INTERFERENCE AND WEDGE PLAY. 1 99 

other places where his interference is 
none the less hazardous. This really is 
the first point to be considered in laying 
out the interference of a team — to so 
use the men as to leave them still in 
condition to perform their own special 
parts of the regular work. The coach 
should apply this to every plan for 
interference, making it a test ques- 
tion before proceeding to develop the 
play. 

To begin with the opening play so 
common formerly among all teams, 
the close wedge. In this play al- 
most the entire team were used as 
interferers, the runner and the two 
or three lightest men being the ones 
who went inside. Although this play 
has now been replaced by a kick, 
there are still many plays directed 
at the centre or guards which par- 
take very closely of the original wedge 



200 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

formation, only differing in the num- 
ber of men involved and the time 
of the formation. Then there are the 
plays directed at the tackle, where 
the run is short and straight for- 
ward. Here the two men making the 
opening are the chief interferers, and 
they select their men and crowd them 
apart just as the runner plunges forward 
into the opening. It is the custom to 
combine this with the tandem system, 
running one or even two men through 
this opening in advance of the man with 
the ball, and still another man behind 
him to push. In the event of one or 
more of the men preceding the runner 
succeeding in getting through and clear 
of the line, they are expected to make 
themselves useful by proceeding down 
the field and interfering with the halves 
and back. The run around by the tackle 
involves a similar method of interfer- 



INTERFERENCE AND WEDGE PLAY. 20I 

ence, his opening being made in precise- 
ly the same manner as the opening for 
a running half or back. 

But it is in plays around the end or 
between the end and the tackle that 
interference is developed in its high- 
est form. Here it is not a question of 
quickly separating two men for a mo- 
ment, until a runner can plunge between 
them and then shift for himself. It is 
rather a prolonged and continuous block- 
ing off of, it may be, seven or eight men, 
and some of these not only once, but 
tv/o or three times in the course of the 
play, while the runner circles around be- 
hind this line of protectors, until, if the 
play be properly made, he comes flying 
by the end of that line either at the ex- 
treme edge of the field or more fre- 
quently far enough inside to go between 
the opposing end and tackle. The prin- 
cipal study of the play is directed tow- 



202 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

ards the proper timing of it, that is, to 
insure the arrival of first one man, then 
another, at the previously undefended 
point just as the runner is passing that 
point. Theoretically, if one could shift 
the entire line of forwards toward the 
end which is being assailed, and keep 
within that line all the opposing tacklers, 
he would have a perfect interference for 
an end-run. But practically the oppo- 
nents refuse to be thus hemmed in, and 
it is therefore necessary to form a pro- 
tection for a space of perhaps five yards, 
and the protection must move as rap- 
idly as the runner behind it. This pro- 
tecting mass first strikes out across the 
field for two reasons — first, to move the 
play quickly to a point where the heavy 
centre and guards cannot assist in stop- 
ping the runner; and secondly, to allow 
the runner to get his full speed on. As 
the protecting mass moves along the 



INTERFERENCE AND WEDGE PLAY. 203 

line, it reaches a point where the resist- 
ance will be weakest, and then presses 
its weight rapidly in towards the oppo- 
nents' goal, and the runner performs his 
circling part, while the one or two Inter- 
ferers he has more closely tied to him 
either still precede him, or more usually 
go on towards the opposing end, thus 
effectually preventing him from coming 
in to head off the runner. Now, it must 
be remembered that this protecting mass 
of men is obliged to meet the assaults 
of the opponents, and still preserve the 
impregnability of its line. This they 
must also do without the use of their 
hands or arms. There are two distinct 
ways of performing this duty : one is 
by moving so rapidly and closely that 
an opponent cannot dart in between 
them, and the other by running into 
the opponent and knocking him out of 
the way. The former always yields the 



204 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

most successful results, because the mass 
is thereby kept intact much longer ; the 
latter usually results in the falling out, 
man for man, of the interferers with the 
men they stop. It is easy to see, how- 
ever, that so long as the attacking party 
cannot replace the men whom the inter- 
ferers tumble over, the result is almost 
identical, for the runner finally reaches 
his end, even though the last interferer 
go down with the last of the attacking 
party. Again, even the swift -moving 
compact interference is apt to lose one 
or more men on the way to the end, 
and there is a great deal of labor in- 
volved in teaching them to close the 
ranks in time to prevent the next oppo- 
nent from taking advantage of it. 

Up to very recently the men who went 
into the interference were drawn from 
that side of the centre only upon which 
the play was to be executed ; but the 



INTERFERENCE AND WEDGE PLAY. 205 

possibility of getting the other guard 
over to assist has already been demon- 
strated, and the far end as well is now 
regularly added. Some captains believe 
in giving each one of their interferers a 
certain man to take, and it is by far the 
simplest way to try the play. But it 
does not follow that it is the best way, 
and the more recent developments have 
already consigned this practice to the 
category of *' has-beens " in the football 
world. It is impossible to give any cap- 
tain definite advice as to the relative 
time and speed to set his interferers, be- 
cause it all hinges upon the individuals 
involved ; but he must bear in mind one 
fact, and that is that the interfering mass 
should increase its speed progressively 
as it goes tow^ards the end, just as the 
best runner always puts on steam as he 
nears the point he is to try to compass. 
One other question which sometimes 



2o6 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

arises can only be answered by experi- 
ment. It is, How close should the inter- 
ference be to the runner ? It depends 
not upon the opponents, but upon the 
individual desire of the runner, and he 
ought to be the sole judge. Close in- 
terference completely upsets and slows 
some excellent halves, whereas there are 
men who w^ant to have the interferers 
literally against them as they run. 

As to the men who can get into the 
interference, it is a cardinal point that 
every available man should be drawn 
over if the time admits, but as a rule the 
opposite guard and a dropped-back 
end can be carried behind the line. 
The opposite tackle can get through 
and take a half-back, as such a player as 
Newell demonstrated. The order then 
is two guards, a tackle, and an end, thus 
giving four men ; then, a lively quarter, 
like Dean, King, and perhaps one or two 



INTERFERENCE AND WEDGE PLAY. 207 

others, has been able to do effective work 
in preceding the runner. That gives a 
line of five (the near end is engaged in 
boxing the tackle). Then the extra half 
and back, who are, however, used more 
frequently in tandem style, are added to 
the combination, giving a total of seven 
men. Lewis and Balliet are examples of 
centre men who can and sometimes do 
succeed in making their number eight, 
and any team that can crowd eight men 
into the interference may consider them- 
selves as coming close up to the limit if 
the play is to be made fast. 

For all this, the development of the 
game is such that no one can with safety 
set any limit to the number engaged in 
an interference play of the future with- 
out giving the entire eleven. 

THE WEDGE 
The wedge, a play which at first 
was only used at kick-off and kick-out, 



2o8 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

then a little later upon fair catches, 
soon became sufficiently attractive, and 
so eminently successful as to suggest 
that a modification of it could be made 
available upon the occasion of ordinary 
downs. It is quite within the range 
of possibility to say that one Harvard- 
Yale match was, in its final result, de- 
termined by the advantages possessed 
by the Yale team of the use of what 
were then dubbed " small wedges on 
downs/' The touch-down which de- 
cided the match was obtained by two 
or three of these small wedges supple- 
mented by a similar formation, from 
the side of which a player emerged and 
crossed the line. Wesleyan in that 
same year, and a short time after this 
match between Harvard and Yale, met 
Pennsylvania, and surprised every one 
by defeating the Philadelphians by a 
succession of these small wedges. 



INTERFERENCE AND WEDGE PLAY. 209 

Since that time football captains 
have been devoting more and more at- 
tention to this mass work, until in 
1893 it bade fair to monopolize too 
much of the play. Naturally, this 
means that tbe wedge or mass play is 
successful in gaining ground, for no 
captain uses a play in order to produce 
an effect upon the spectator. He uses 
it to gain distance, and the play which 
can most repeatedly add in three downs 
five or more yards to his coveted prog- 
ress, is the play he will bring to the 
highest pitch of perfection. 

If one will bear in mind the features 
of the ordinary wedge at kick-off, such 
as described in a previous chapter of 
this book, he will readily grasp the 
principle of the smaller wedges on 
downs. It is to bring a group of men, 
behind whom is the runner, into con- 
tact with such part of the enemy's line 
14 



2IO AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

as shall be most easily reached and 
broken through. This group of men 
must partake in their formation of the 
nature of a V ; that is, there must be 
concentrated pressure, and in a pre- 
arranged direction, to insure the suc- 
cess of the play. 

The chief dif^culty in perfecting 
wedge work on downs lies in the too 
great proximity of the opponents. At 
kick-off, kick-out, and fair catches, it was 
possible to take suf^cient distance not 
only to perfect the formation, but also 
to secure momentum before the oppos- 
ing line was met. There was, therefore, 
more of the "smashing" character in 
these wedges where the lines were sepa- 
rated than there can ever be in wedges 
formed on downs. This the captain 
or coach should bear constantly in 
mind in his planning, or his wedges 
on downs will never be markedly sue- 



INTERFERENCE AND WEDGE PLAY. 211 

cessful. Such wedges depend for their 
vakie upon very close formation, and, 
as it were, a cumulative pressure. The 
first start of the Avedge is more a clos- 
ing-up than anything else, then comes 
a very rapidly increasing pressure from 
behind that lifts the opponents back 
and crowds ahead for a few yards. A 
wedge on a down ought never to make 
over a few yards, although certain 
outlets for the runner may result in 
an eventual gain of quite a distance. 
There are several types of these wedg- 
es, the most common being the straight 
wedge, which forces the centre or 
guards, and what is called the revolving 
wedge, which, turning upon itself, may 
and sometimes does succeed in rolling 
past the obstructing forces. In all the 
methods it is customary to snap the 
ball to the quarter, he being very close 
up to his centre man and the wedge 



212 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

being packed in tightly around him be- 
fore the ball is played ; he then hands 
it to the runner, who stands within 
the wedge, and the mass moves in the 
determined direction, either directly 
ahead or deflecting to one side or the 
other. This latter method is the prop- 
er one for revolving wedges, and is far 
more successful than the crude attempts 
where the players themselves endeavor 
by turning around like tops to impart 
a revolving motion to the mass itself. 
Almost all these wedges depend, un- 
fortunately, upon the use of hands and 
arms to hold them together, and there 
is a question as to how far this should 
be allowed by the umpire. As a mat- 
ter of fact, so lenient has been the ac- 
cepted ruling that it is doubtful if the 
opinion of football-players would at 
this day support an umpire who ruled 
strictly that such interference was ille- 



INTERFERENCE AND WEDGE PLAY. 213 

gal, if it prevented the opponents from 
breaking into the wedge. 

The wedge play will continue to be 
used, but to a more limited extent, 
and with a probably greater distance 
of movement before meeting the line. 
The wedge play is not a mere weight 
play. It is a play that, when well de- 
signed and skilfully executed, has be- 
hind it weeks of planning and study. 
The University of Pennsylvania's wedg- 
es were models of skill. The Harvard 
flying wedge was a piece of clever 
headwork. The wedges which drove 
Butterworth through any line that op- 
posed Yale were not mere push-plays. 
The wedge has a right to stay, and 
ought to be given a chance. But the 
wedge has a way of tying up the play 
to a too limited space ; it has a way 
of exhausting and using up men who 
face it too many times in succession, 



214 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

Those outside the lines can seldom see 
its plan of action ; they can only see 
the mass, and it loses its interest when 
worked too often. It ought to be a 
possible play, but not all the play, and 
legislation which will induce the cap- 
tain for the interest of his team to use 
other plays as well is the legislation 
that will be productive of the best re- 
sults in the end. 



APPENDIX 



TEAM PLAY 

If ever a sport offered inducements to the 
man of executive ability, to the man who 
can plan, foresee, and manage, it is certain- 
ly the modern American football. Already 
in the 5^ears during which the game has 
been played in this country the fact has 
been time and again demonstrated that a 
team composed of the very pick of individ- 
ual players has no chance whatever against 
the systematic methods of even the ordina- 
rily well-drilled team, whose members are by 
no means equal in attainments or physique 
to the picked team, but who have played 
together for months, and whose force can be 
concentrated on the word at any desired 
point. 

Team play is the road to victory, and the 
only one in these days of football, when 



2l8 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

captains and coaches spend far more time 
and thought over the conduct of the cam- 
paign than over individual work. Not only 
is the general dependence of one man upon 
another brought out and made a feature of 
the work, but the general movement of the 
struggle, the point of pressure, and the lines 
of resistance — all are become an interesting 
study for those who mean to win. 

Unfortunately the fact that, when the sea- 
son commences, probably half the men on a 
team are new militates very strongly against 
any early attempts at general team-work, 
but v\^ith patience the rudimentary knowl- 
edge is drilled into the new recruits, and 
after a few weeks the coach can begin to 
teach them uniformity of action as a whole. 
Of the plays most commonly practised by 
teams of the present day, there are perhaps 
a score which one can note as regulation 
plays, and a brief description of certain of 
these will aid captains and coaches who 
have new teams to break in. 



TEAM PLAY. 2ig 

THE WEDGE, OR V. 

The wedge, or V, is the play formerly- 
used to open a game by probably nine 
tenths of the teams. Under the later 
amendments the prevalence of wedge-plays 
has been greatly lessened, for they can no 
longer be used where the rules call for a 
kick ; but small wedges on downs are still 
as available and as effective as ever, so that 
a thorough understanding of them is nec- 
essary. The play takes its name from the 
peculiar arrangement of the players during 
the attempt to advance. The formation is 
that of a V-shaped mass of men, with the 
runner inside the V. The point is direct- 
ed towards the enemy's line, and the en- 
deavor is to force an opening through 
which the runner may emerge, and con- 
tinue on even after the wedge of protecting 
men is brought to a standstill. The first 
point in this play is an actual advance of 
the entire body by main force of weight and 



220 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

pushing as far as possible, keeping the for- 
mation unbroken, so that the runner with the 
l:)all may not be stopped. This usually means 
an appreciable advance. Then there is the 
additional chance of so separating the op- 
ponents as to allow the runner to come out 
at the peak or through the side suddenly and 
unexpectedly while the opponents are in- 
volved in the mass, and by this unexpected 
emergence add to the gain made by the 
wedge an ofttimes unimpeded and consid- 
erable run of his own. Some coaches in- 
struct the runner to use his own discretion 
about selecting his opening ; others have a 
definite understanding as to where he is to 
emerge, the two men between whom he goes 
making the opening at the time when they 
find the wedge stopping. The latter method 
is far preferable in a well-drilled team whose 
men are not wofully overmatched by their 
opponents in respect to size and strength. 
A team should practise variations of this 
play in order that the runner may have the 



TEAM PLAY. 221 

advantage of surprising the opponents by 
not coming out at always the same point. 
Several modifications of the wedge play- 
have been practised with more or less suc- 
cess by different teams. One of the most 
clever was a one-sided V play in which the 
men started off sharply, making a diagonal 
line of men running across and against the 
opponents, while the man with the ball ran 
just behind them, and managed to make the 
distance which this line could cut off from 
the field. 

The wedge and its principles were, of 
course, more chiefly applicable when the 
opponents were restrained from advancing, 
as in kick-off, kick-out, and fair catches, but 
the same formation upon a smaller scale is 
now largely practised in the case of ordi- 
nary downs. 

HOW TO MEET A WEDGE. 

Many are the ways in which opponents 
try to meet and defeat the ends of this 



222 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

v/edge play. Tlie most simple, and the one 
which has commended itself most generally, 
is that of lying down before it. It is not 
deeply scientific, and is sometimes rather 
trying to those who perform the duty ; but it 
is effective to a degree, and, when there are 
no other means which seem to check the 
advance, is not to be scorned. The men in 
the front ot the wedge fall over the prostrate 
antagonists, and the advance comes to a 
stop suddenly and surely. But there is an 
objection in the case of a cleverly manipu- 
lated wedge when the runner is helped out 
at the side, and the men who are down in 
front cannot rise to be of any assistance in 
stopping him. Of course there are others 
upon whom this duty should devolve ; but 
rapid and judicious interference at the prop- 
er moment may take these out of the way, 
and the gain made be far greater than by a 
direct forcing at the peak of the wedge. 
Other methods of opposition are : breaking 
in the peak by main strength ; sending a 



TEAM PLAY. 223 

man over the heads of the leaders ; and, 
finally, and more scientific when skilfully 
performed, holding the peak and turning the 
pressure off, so that the wedge goes across 
the field instead of straight ahead. 

A SECOND PLAY. 

As under the present methods of play, 
the game is started with an actual kick, 
and that kick is usually of necessity made 
against whatever wind there may be, the 
side receiving the ball is prompted to re- 
turn it with the wind. Therefore, when 
the game has been started, and the first 
kick executed, almost the next manoeuvre 
will be a punt, say by a half-back or 
back. The team play upon this is to secure 
the ground gained by the kick. This is only 
possible by the coincidence of several events 
— a well-directed kick, strong and rapid fol- 
lowing up, aided by slow or careless play by 
the opponents. But in every case the at- 
tempt must be made, and the forwards, par- 



2 24 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

ticularly the ends, or, if they be badly im- 
peded, the tackles, must go down the field 
hard, upon the chance of getting the ball or 
forcing a down, rather than a return kick or 
a scratch. Here good judgment plays a 
most important part. First, in the kicker. 
If he can select the most difficult point for 
the half or back of his opponents to reach, 
and there place the ball, he gives his own 
men a fair chance to make good his kick. 
This is also equally applicable to the initial 
kick opening the game. If he send the ball 
too high, his opponents will surely be able 
to reach the spot and secure a fair catch. 
If he send it too low, his own men have no 
time to get down the field, and the oppo- 
nents will surely return the kick — probably 
on the run, and with interest. A happy 
medium between the two is what he must 
try for, and it is only long practice which 
will enable him to hit upon this happy me- 
dium. 



TEAM PLAY. 



FORWARD PLAY UNDER A KICK, 



225 



Then, too, the judgment of his forwards 
often makes the difference between success 
and failure in this play. It must be remem- 
bered that the forwards cannot start off 
madly down the field as soon as the ball is 
snapped. If they could there would be no 
difficulty about their being on hand when 
the ball came. But each has to block his 
man first, in order that the kicker may not 
be stopped by a man getting through upon 
him while in the very act of kicking the ball. 
The usual fault of green forwards is to block 
too long, and hence to be late in getting 
after the kick. The fault of the older men 
is apt to be the opposite one of taking too 
great chances for the sake of an early start. 
Then there is also a way of telling where the 
ball is going to fall by the movement and 
faces of the opponents, rather than by stop- 
ping to look over one's own head to actually 

see the ball itself. Veteran forwards seldom 

15 



2 26 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

have to see the ball as they go down the 
field. They can judge exactly from the op- 
ponents where to go. 

This knack of reading at a glance the 
probable dropping-point of the kick is ac- 
quired by nearly all men who play long in 
the forward line, and it makes a wonderful 
difference in the quickness with which they 
can follow up a kick. But there is one other 
point often — too often — neglected in the 
practice, and hence of no manner of use in 
a game. I refer to an understanding be- 
tween the forwards and the kicker as to 
where he intends driving the ball ; also as 
to whether he will send a high kick or a low 
one ; still further, and most important of all, 
whether he will kick into touch or not. Un- 
der the new rules this point becomes of the 
very greatest importance. 

KICKING INTO TOUCH. 

One play by no means unpopular of 
late and likely to become still more attrac- 



TEAM PLAY. 227 

live was that of deliberately kicking into 
touch on the third down (or short kicking 
by the quarter-back) and making a try at 
recovering the ball. Of course the success 
of the play depended largely upon whether 
the opponents were taken by surprise or 
not; but even when they suspected such a 
stratagem there \vas still some chance of 
success, because they could not place a man 
over in touch without greatly weakening 
their defence, and giving a fair opportunity 
of driving the ball between them in the field 
of play. When this kicking into long touch 
upon a third down is attempted, the for- 
wards are always apprised of it. But there 
is almost as much reason for advising them 
of the probable destination of the ball 
in other kicks as well, and before many 
more seasons the crack teams will have 
signals that shall convey this needed in- 
formation fully to the forwards. The rea- 
son this development has not come earlier 
is that the punting of Americans is not 



2 28 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

up to the standard of the rest of their play. 
Most strikingly is this true of the accuracy 
of their punts. When, therefore, a kicker 
does not know himself where he is going to 
send the ball, there is no great demand for 
a signal which would only mean that he 
might possibly send the ball in a certain di- 
rection, but the chances were about even of 
its going elsewhere. As soon as American 
teams have half-backs or backs competent 
to place the ball when they punt it with 
some fair measure of accuracy, we shall find 
them signalling the direction of each kick to 
their forwards. Then will the opposition 
that may now be advanced against this play 
with quite a preponderance of success be- 
come far more difficult. 

DEFEATING A KICK. 

At present the team play to defeat the ob- 
ject of a kick consists of sending one or two 
extra men up into the forward line — one of 
them the quarter and the other a half if 



TEAM PLAY. 229 

deemed safe — and then attacking the kick- 
ing side at any of the points along which 
the ball travels in its course ; that is, en- 
deavoring to secure the ball while it is being 
snapped to the quarter, while the quarter is 
passing it to a half, while the half is catch- 
ing it, while he is kicking it, and, finally, 
just as it starts on its course, before it 
passes above the uplifted hands. All this 
in the direction of stopping the kick. Next, 
as to neutralizing its effect ; and here, per- 
haps, is the less clearly understood portion 
of the play. When the ball has passed 
safely from the foot of the kicker over the 
heads of the attacking forwards, only the 
smallest portion of the gain has been effect- 
ed, and it is possible to entirely neutralize 
the play if the action is quick and united. 
First, the men who are following up the kick 
must be stopped or retarded ; and, next, the 
man who is about to receive the ball must 
be protected. But the style of kick must 
determine which of these two elements is of 



230 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

the greater importance. For instance, if the 
kick be a high one, and one that does not 
carry the ball very far down the field, no 
amount of interference — legitimate interfer- 
ence — can prevent some of the forwards 
reaching the spot v/here the ball will fall 
some time before it comes down. And, 
again, on a low long kick going directly at 
the full back, a very slight amount of inter- 
ference will allow him plenty of time to take 
the ball and return it, and he may need 
no protection whatever beyond that which 
early interference will give to him. And the 
final point is, of course, the quickness, cool- 
ness, and skill of the man who must receive 
and return the kick either from a fair catch 
or on the run. As a rule, unless for a 
chance at goal or a particularly placed kick, 
the return on the run is the preferred meth- 
od, because then the forwards are up under 
the kick, where they, in their turn, may take 
advantage of the fumbling of an adversary. 
Then, too, it gives the enemy the larger 



TEAM PLAY. 23 1 

share of the running to do. A fair catch 
recalls the forwards to " on side," and gives 
the opponents a chance to rearrange their 
scattered men, as well as a clear field in 
which to catch and return. 

BUCKING THE LINE. 

The simplest form of team play (and even 
in these days of highly developed inter- 
ference it is worth while to study the 
method of a simple play) in " a run " is 
that wherein a half-back attempts to make 
his way through the line at some given point. 
Let us take, for the sake of an example, a 
run between guard and tackle. The princi- 
pal feature of this pla)^, and yet the one 
most regularly neglected, is to get the run- 
ner up into the line in good form and with 
the ball well held. Three out of every five 
failures of this play come from a cause op- 
erating before the runner strikes the line. 
The ball may be badly passed to him, he 
may be too slow in starting, he may fumble 



232 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

the ball when it comes, or he may hesitate 
or even drop the ball just before he reaches 
the line. Any one of these mistakes may 
serve to bring a man upon his back before he 
takes his plunge. But there are faults which 
are not to be attributed to the runner, yet just 
as fatal to his success, although they are the 
work, or rather lack of work, of others. Any 
man along the line may let his opponent 
through, and that opponent be able to reach 
the runner from behind before he can make 
his opening. The likeliest places for this to 
happen are on the opposite side at tackle, 
and sometimes, in the case of an extra man, 
like a quarter, near the centre. The first 
lesson for the coach, then, to teach his pu- 
pils regarding this play is the absolute ne- 
cessity of blocking sharply until the run- 
ner can start. It is not necessary to hold a 
man until the runner has gone through ; it is 
only necessary to block long enough to be 
sure that the man let through will be too 
late to reach the runner. As to the men who 



TEAM PLAY. 233 

are engaged in making the opening, they 
must be unanimous in their action. If the 
guard pushes his man out of the way a min- 
ute before the tackle disposes of his man, 
the runner will never be able to get through 
safely. The two men must act at the same 
instant, and merely force their men apart, 
rather than attempt, as some forwards do, 
to carry the opponent ten yards or so out of 
the way. The most successful opening is 
not the large one, but the small, sharply de- 
fined one that just lets the runner through, 
and lets nobody through behind him. From 
this, one must see that the calculation of the 
proper time to make the opening is rather a 
delicate matter. That it certainly is ; for, 
made too early, it is sure to become choked 
before the runner reaches it , and made too 
late, it delays him so that he is caught from 
behind. It ought to come just as his footsteps 
bring him up to it. In fact, it has not been 
badly described as appearing to be made by 
a " cow-catcher " preceding him by a few feet. 



234 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

THE TANDEM PLAY. 

This idea has been carried into execution 
by making an accompanying half act as a 
"cow-catcher," preceding the runner through 
tlie opening to clear the way, and in many 
cases to be tackled by mistake for the hold- 
er of the ball, who is thus enabled to make 
on a few steps farther. This play, with its 
general application to runs made through 
the rush line, has been known as the " tan- 
dem play," and is often diversified by hav- 
ing a third man still take part in it by join- ■ 
ing his comrade in preceding the runner, or 
else by following after the runner, and giv- 
ing him a much-needed push when he seems 
likely to come to a standstill. The chief 
caution to give the assistants in this tandem 
play is that if they precede the runner, they 
must not under any circumstances fail down 
or allow themselves to be thrown to the 
ground. If a leader finds himself losing his 
balance, and realizes that he cannot regain 
his feet, but must tumble, his last attempt 



TEAM PLAY. 235 

must be to throw himself — and, if possible, 
an opponent — clear of the jDath he knows 
his runner is likely to need. 

SPOILING A RUN. 

And this indicates w^hat the opposition is 
that should be advanced to meet this play. 
As in the case of a kick, every attempt 
should be made to spoil the quarter's pass, 
to prevent the half from receiving the ball 
safely, and, finally, to overtake him before he 
reaches, or just as he has entered, his open- 
ing. In order to make this last attempt 
more successful, there should be a general 
understanding among those near the play 
that they must "choke up the opening" at 
all hazards, by getting into it themselves 
or by throwing an opponent there. It is 
well to remember that if, by mistake, a man 
tackles the one who hasn't the ball, he has 
still done good service if, by so doing, he 
has blocked the way of the runner ; whereas 
if he tackle the man in this vray, and throw 



236 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

him to one side instead of into the opening, 
he has aided the runner. 

After the runner has gone through the 
line, and is making his way down the field, 
every rusher should feel it his duty to follow 
him, no matter how hopeless the chase may 
at the moment appear to be. There is always 
a chance of overtaking the runner, even if 
he have no one to pass ; and in this case he 
will probably have to go by two men at least, 
one half and the back. Here is also a point 
which the coach should thoroughly instil into 
the minds of his halves and back, and that 
is the advisability of going forward to meet 
the runner rather than waiting for him to 
come. There are two reasons for this act, 
both of them sound ones. In the first place, 
if the tackle prove successful, the gain made 
by the run will be shortened by just the 
amount that the tackier advanced ; and, sec- 
ondly, if it prove unsuccessful, it neverthe- 
less increases the opportunities for still over- 
taking the runner, both by upsetting his cal- 



TEAM PLAY. 237 

culations in regard to his direction, and by 
giving him less time to think how he shall 
make his turn. 

END RUN. 

The next distinctive team play of im- 
portance is an end run. Usually one of 
the backs is the man selected for the great- 
er part of this work, and in the execution of 
it clever interference reaches its height. Not 
that the interference itself is more difficult 
in this play than in any other, but that the 
massing of men at the point of attack is 
more long-continued, and hence must be 
planned not as a single instant of combined 
pressure, but as several minutes of running 
interference. When well performed, it looks 
like the swinging of a long line of men against 
the flank of the opponents, as one might 
swing a line of boys in " snap the whip," 
and one, the runner, goes spinning off around 
the end just as the lines seem to meet. All 
this is in appearance only, for to accomplish 



238 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

the play successfully several men must be 
checked or interfered with as the runner 
makes his way out to the end ; and just as 
he reaches that point, and puts on his burst 
of speed, there must be a clever shutting-off 
of the outermost man. Such work cannot 
be learned in a day. It requires the steady 
practice together of the same men for vv^eeks 
before the precision of movement can be at- 
tained. All teams do not carry out the end 
play in exactly the same manner, and it is by 
no means certain that any particular method 
may be selected and called the best of them 
all. But whatever the method is, it must be 
practised faithfully, its weaknesses patched 
up, and its movement regulated, if it is to 
prove a success when the important time of 
trial comes ; that is, in actual contest with 
a strange and strong team. 

EXECUTION OF AN END RUN. 

The description of a single method will 
suffice to show the chief points of the play, 



TEAM PLAY. 239 

and will indicate the lines upon which it 
should be built. Let us suppose that the 
coach chooses to send the left half-back 
around the right end. Even the most ig- 
norant of football novices wall appreciate 
the fact that such a play is mere madness 
if the ball is well over on the right side of 
the field, for then the runner w^ould only be 
going straight into the very thickest of the 
crowd, and with clear space ahead only after 
he should have gone outside the touch line. 
The first thing, to be done, then, is to select 
an opportunity or make one when the ball 
shall be well over upon the left side of the 
field. Then give the signal for this play, 
and let the left half-back, as soon as the ball 
is snapped, start towards the right, receiving 
the ball, and then running directly across the 
field ten yards or less behind the line of for- 
wards. At the same moment the right half- 
back and back make off in a similar direc- 
tion, but, from the advantage of their posi- 
tion, preceding the runner by a few yards. 



240 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

The quarter, too, immediately after passing 
the ball, runs to the right, very much nearer 
the forward line, however, than any of the 
other three, and in such a way as to jostle 
off any man who may have succeeded in 
getting through the line of rushers. The 
left guard goes with the quarter, and the 
left end has dropped back and starts almost 
with the left half. The guard, tackle, and 
end on the right are meantime blocking 
their men as well as they can ; and it is 
easy to understand that, as soon as these 
men see the direction of the runner, they will 
endeavor to get over to the right end as rap- 
idly as their encumbered position will allow. 
The result is that the entire side of the line 
moves in that direciion ; but as each oppo- 
nent is impeded to a greater or less degree 
by the man who is blocking him, the runner 
and his two preceding comrades are making 
much better time towards the desired gap 
that intervenes between the end of the rush 
line and the edge of the field. When the 



TEAM PLAY. 241 

runner finds himself approaching a point a 
few yards inside the opposing end, he puts 
on his highest speed, and tries to circle the 
end of the line. At the same moment his 
two comrades have reached that end, and, 
by interfering, crowd into the field any op- 
ponent who has succeeded in reaching a 
dangerous proximity to the side line. As 
the runner goes past the extreme end, the 
combined force of his half and back with 
the end and tackle, and perhaps a quarter 
as well, compresses the line of straggling op- 
ponents into a kind of cramped semicircle, 
outside of which the runner has a fairly 
good chance of a long run. The prin- 
cipal element is not the number of men 
who are engaged, but the proper timing of 
their interference to so tangle up the op- 
posing line, as the runner makes for the end, 
that, when he makes his spurt, he shall have 
a fair chance, by the use of his highest speed, 
to pass the narrow gap without being tackled 

or forced into touch, 
16 



242 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

MEETING AN END RUN. 

The opposition to this end run is basea 
upon two things — one, the activity of the 
general line in breaking through and reach- 
ing the runner ; the other, the cleverness 
of the end in avoiding the interferers and 
guarding the edge of the field. It would 
seem perfectly simple for a coach to instruct 
an end to stand at his post, close to the touch 
line, and thus block up the gap ; but if that 
be performed too literally, the runner turns 
earlier and comes inside the end, making his 
run just as effective as though he passed out- 
side. Green men on the end err, as a rule, 
far oftener on the side of coming in too far 
or too soon than they do in sticking too 
closely to the touch line ; so that in coaching 
green men it is better to keep them for some 
time under the strictest orders to make the 
runner go on the inside. Later, when they 
have mastered the idea that there is nothing 
to help them on the outside except a slender 



TEAM PLAY. . 243 

touch line, they can be gradually permitted 
to exercise a little judgment on their own 
account in the matter of leaving the side line 
in case of emergency. The truth of the mat- 
ter is that so much depends upon thorough 
co-operation between an end and his own 
tackle, that the two should be law each to 
the other. No other method of play, such 
as laying down a hard and fast rule as to 
when an end may try for a man, can ever 
meet with the success that can be brought 
about by a thorough understanding and play- 
ing in pairs of these two positions. 

ADAPTATION OF THE FOUR PLAYS. 

These plays — the wedge, the kick, the run 
through the line, and the run around the end 
— make a framework upon which a coach 
may build up an almost endless variety of 
movements ; and if he follow the points laid 
down for the successful execution of these, 
he will find that they act as guides to almost 
any manoeuvre he may wish to attempt. 



244 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

For example, the principle of the wedge 
may be adapted to almost any forcing en 
masse, no matter at what point it may be di- 
rected. Similarly, the blocking for a punt 
is not very unlike that to be adopted when 
a drop-kick is attempted. All running by 
half-backs through the line takes on the 
character of either the run between guard 
and tackle or that around the end, while 
the assistance rendered by interferers is 
usually either that shown in the tandem 
play or that illustrated in the end run. 

TEAM TACTICS. 

But there is still another branch to be dis- 
cussed, which might be classed under the 
head of team tactics rather than that of team 
play. That branch is the study of transfer- 
ring the play from point to point, and the 
adaptation of the various methods to the end 
immediately desired. One can readily see 
that a team might be proficient in all the 
plays described, and be composed of good 



TEAM PLAY, 245 

material, and yet, by a failure to use the right 
play at the proper time, make a most pitiable 
showing. To take an extreme case, a team 
might be directly under the opponent's goal 
and within a few yards of the goal line, with 
the ball at first down, and, instead of forcing 
the ball over or trying a drop, might let a 
half or back punt the ball over the line, and 
thus give the opponents a touch back and 
the privilege of bringing the ball out to the 
twenty- five -yard line. Or, again, a team 
might have a strong wind at their backs, 
and the ball be down in their own goal at 
the third down. Instead of driving a long 
punt down the field, they might send a run- 
ner ploughing up into the line, and, making 
no gain, be obliged to surrender the ball to 
their opponents. Such generalship, while 
it seems, when studied in cold blood, ab- 
solutely idiotic, is in minor ways regularly 
exhibited a dozen times in a game by cap- 
tains who ought to know better. 



246 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 



USING THE WIND. 

The Study of the best methods of tak- 
ing advantage of the wind is one of the 
most important, particularly now that kick- 
ing has been increased in importance, 
and will rev/ard the captain and coach 
fully as much as the same amount of 
thought expended upon any other feature of 
the game. The majority are contented with 
the mere knowledge that the side which has 
the wind should do the most kicking, but in 
reality such a statement of the case is whol- 
ly inadequate. When the wind is blowing 
straight down the field, its value as a factor 
in the kicking game is something which spec- 
tators scarcely realize, and even the players 
themselves hardly reckon at its full account 
until they are compelled to face it. But, for 
all this, one must not conclude that the thing 
to do is to punt the ball as far down the field 
as possible every time the opportunity offers. 
Especially is such a policy a poor one when 



TEAM PLAY. 247 

the ball is near enough to the opponents' 
goal to make the kick send it past the goal 
line. A drop kick under such circumstances 
is sometimes, though not always, indicated. 
If it is a first-down inside the twenty-five- 
yard line, it is generally advisable ; because 
then the opponents can have only to the 
ten-yard line for their kick-out, and must, 
moreover, kick out against the wind. The 
true way to make use of the wind under 
these conditions depends oftentimes upon 
the stage of the game at the moment. If the 
runners on the team are fresh and strong, 
and from their earlier attempts have shown 
that they can repeatedly succeed in making 
their five yards, it is frequently advisable 
when within the fifteen yard line to play 
for a touch-down. But, on the other hand, 
if there be only a few minutes of playing 
time left, and five points will turn a defeat 
into victory, the drop kick may be strongly 
called for. 



248 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

KICKING INTO TOUCH NEAR GOAL LINE. 

But chiefest of all, in a game where the 
sides are fairly well matched and the game 
in its early stages, is the kick into touch near 
the corner. American players seem as yet 
to have gained no great knowledge of the 
immense value of this kicking into touch. 
An English back will seldom kick anywhere 
else than into touch, while our players do 
not even realize the value of such a kick in 
the most marked cases. When the ball is 
still far from the goal, and yet so within 
the enemy's territory as with the wind to 
make it likely that a strong kick will send 
it to the goal line, the play should always 
be to kick into touch as well down towards 
the corner as possible. Such a play puts 
the opponents upon the defensive, and that, 
too, in a most unpleasant manner, for it 
brings them up against their own goal with 
a course and two alternatives from which 
to choose. They must, by wonderful run- 



TEAM PLAY. 249 

ning, gain their five yards more than once, 
or be forced to kick directly before their 
own goal, or finally make a safety touch- 
down. If they make a safety, it gives their 
enemies two points ; if they kick the ball, it 
gives their enemies a more than fair chance 
to catch the ball, heel it, and place kick a 
goal. If they try a run, it may turn into a 
safety. And it is by no means an encour- 
aging situation for a runner called upon to 
carry the ball out of such a predicament. 
The side which is forced is likely to be dis- 
couraged, while the attacking side is doubly 
confident and strong from their close prox- 
imity to the opponents' goal. 

WHEN AND WHERE TO KICK. 

But this is only a very simple case, and the 
reasons for the play are evident. There are 
many other occasions where there is more 
opportunity for discussion ; for instance, the 
question whether, when with the vi^ind, it is 
always advisable to kick on the first down. 



250 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

One of the best rules to follow in this case 
is that a captain can safely send his men 
occasionall}^ for a run on first downs, or 
even second downs, so long as he only gives 
them enough work to keep them active, and 
not to tire them in the least. He should 
always remember that one of the chief ad- 
vantages to be gained from the wind is that 
of keeping his own runners fresh by kicking, 
while his opponents are obliged to exhaust 
their men by making their recovery of lost 
ground almost entirely by running. One 
rule when playing with the wind the captain 
is never justified in breaking, so long as he 
is not close to the opponents' goal, and that 
is to " get in his kick." In other words, no 
matter if he has gained in his two attempts 
all but six inches oi the five yards, he must 
take no chances of another run when the 
wind is with him, but kick. 

A point sometimes forgotten is that in im- 
portant matches the crowd are often so ar- 
ranged upon the stands as to shut off much 



TEAM PLAY. 251 

of the force of the wind in the lower strata 
of the air, and for this reason as well a kick 
with the wind should be a high kick. For 
the same reason, the side which is facing 
the wind should always, when forced to 
kick, send the bail rather low, and as hard 
as possible. 



THE EFFECT OF THE CHANGES 
IN RULES 

In no sport so much as football does a 
slight alteration in a rule effect such re- 
markable changes in the style of play. 
When, therefore, a number of essentially 
radical alterations are introduced and a 
general revision made, as has been done 
lately, there can be little doubt of our 
seeing some remarkable effects. Many of 
them will be agreeable to the spectator 
and probably to a considerable proportion 
of the players, although the older players 
are always conservative about any altera- 
tions in a rule. Perhaps, therefore, it is 
well at the outset of this chapter to state 
the reasons which led to this general re- 
vision. 

The tendency developed in the last three 



EFFECT OF CHANGES IN RULES. 253 

or four years towards more closeness of 
play led to an over-reliance by the captains 
upon wedge and mass plays of all descrip- 
tions. This was only natural, because it 
was by means of these plays that posses- 
sion of the ball could be most advanta- 
geously continued. Except at opening 
plays, these methods were not productive 
of long gains or brilliant runs, but par- 
took of a general hammering nature, yield- 
ing, however, enough to make the five yards 
in three downs. No one could afford to 
ignore the fact that in close, hard -fought 
games, and particularly in rainy weather, 
these were the safest tactics to adopt. But 
all this meant a general disregard of the 
kicking game and the sacrifice of long 
passes and brilliant methods to something 
which should be safer in the captain's eye. 
The interest of the spectator, and especial- 
ly the interest of the spectator who v/as 
fairly versed in the game, began to wane 
under these conditions, and there was a 



2 54 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

great deal of dissatisfaction felt even with 
the play of 1892. When all these faults be- 
came still more exaggerated in 1893, there 
was a loud call for action of some kind ; 
and by the time the season was ended 
players and the public were ready for, at 
any rate, the first steps towards the curtail- 
ment of the close play and a reintroduction 
of the more open kicking methods. The 
University Athletic Club, at the invitation 
of some of the leading colleges, appointed 
a committee of experts, who held meetings 
during the winter and spring, and in May 
proposed a set of rules which were accept- 
ed by the University Athletic Club, and 
adopted to govern the Harvard-Yale con- 
test, and later by the Intercollegiate Asso- 
ciation. 

So far for an explanation of the causes 
which led to the first general revision. A 
second took place in 1896. The effect 
upon the play no one can be sure of. The 
wedge and mass plays will undoubtedly 



EFFECT OF CHANGES IN RULES. 255 

still be continued, though not to so great 
an extent ; and the kicking will surely not 
be, as a great many have supposed, the 
entire feature of the contest in the future. 
It will take more severe legislation to bring 
such a change as that about. The game 
will, however, open with a kick, and very 
likely, when there is much wind, with two 
kicks — that is, the winner of the toss, hav- 
ing his choice of goal or kick-off, will 
probably take goal, and the opponents will, 
therefore, have the kick-off. The new rules 
provide that this kick-off must be an actual 
kick into the opponent's territory of, at 
least, ten yards, so that it is probable that 
we shall see the old-fashioned start once 
more. But the side receiving the ball, 
having the wind with them, will be inclined 
to take an early opportunity of returning 
the kick, so that, as stated above, we shall 
probably see two kicks early in the game. 
The running play may even be deferred 
until the ball has been thus kicked and 



256 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

returned, and the opening play, by the 
holder's flying wedge or an attempt made 
to hold the ball through a succession of 
downs until a touch-down is secured, has 
been done away with. The final difference, 
however, will not be very great, because 
after the return kick the side playing 
against the wind will then naturally en- 
deavor to play a running game and hold 
the ball as long as possible. To sum up 
the first few minutes of the game, therefore, 
it is not unlikely that we shall see the side 
which started off in possession of the ball 
beginning their running game, instead of at 
the middle of the field, some ten or fifteen 
yards back of that centre, dependent, of 
course, upon the force of the wind, and be- 
ginning with a down instead of with tlie fly- 
ing wedge. 

Having gone thus far into the game, the 
effect of the more stringent rule against 
fouls will be of interest. Instead of five 
yards, the penalty has been increased to 



EFFECT OF CHANGES IN RULES. 257 

ten yards for fouls and violation of the 
rules, unless the offending side has the 
ball, in which case the penalty is the same 
as of old — that is, an immediate surrender 
of the ball to the opponents. This at 
once brings a new element into the game, 
because the penalty for a foul to the side 
holding the ball is no greater than it was a 
year ago, but the penalty inflicted upon the 
side acting on the defence is doubled. Just 
what the final outcome of this will be is hard 
to say ; but the first year shows that it ben- 
efits the attack, and so, perhaps, makes it 
easier to retain possession of the ball and 
make distance. It is certain that it has 
tended to make the captain drill his men to 
a very strict observation of the rules when 
on the defence. So far, then, we find that 
the captain and coach now have to educate 
their men for good general kicking ; and by 
"good" is meant not only long place kick- 
ing, but a development of accuracy as well, 

and an even more rapid following up of the 
17 



258 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

play than ever before. Then the captain 
must hold his men under the greatest re- 
straint, to prevent their getting off side 
during the scrimmage when the opponents 
have the ball. 

The next point we come to is that of 
the fair catch. Here a provision has been 
made that, while giving the catcher pro- 
tection if he so desires it, still permits him 
to take the chance in a great many kicks of 
a run with the ball. Of course, when it is 
a high kick, or he is surrounded by his op- 
ponents, he will take the catch and heel 
the ball ; but he is not likely to decide until 
the last moment, and then he will heel only 
when there is no chance for a run. To tell 
the truth, the half-backs and backs are 
really not so afraid of being thrown as they 
are of muffing the ball, for all the pity which 
has been bestowed upon them in the past. 

Apropos of these offences, the third offi- 
cial or linesman proves of considerable as- 
sistance to the umpire and referee on fouls 



EFFECT OF CHANGES IN RULES. 259 

as well as on timing the game. He will 
probably confine his work mostly to the 
side lines, in keeping track of the downs 
and distance covered. This, as well as all 
his other conduct, is, however, under the 
advice of the umpire or the referee, and he 
is, therefore, by no manner of means as im- 
portant an official as either of these. 

Fields are now kept clear by a rule which 
provides that only one man, and he presum- 
ably competent to take care of an injured 
player, shall go upon the field in case of an 
accident. 

When the ball goes into touch we now 
see no more scrimmages on the side of the 
field as we have at times, for the player can- 
not bound it in and run with it, but he must 
either walk out and put it down in accord- 
ance with the most common fashion, or 
touch it in and kick it. This latter play is 
seldom seen, and " fairs " have probably 
resolved themselves into what they have 
been practically for the last few years — 



26o AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

namely, a down fifteen yards from the side 
line. 

The effect of limiting the time of the 
game to an hour and ten minutes has been to 
make the playing faster and even more dash- 
ing than formerly, for it accents the duty of 
the captains to get all the play possible out 
of their men in the two shortened halves. 
Moreover, no time being allowed to recover 
breath tends to keep the play going with 
such continuity that spectators are hardly 
bored by the slowness of the progress. 

Perhaps the most important change in 
methods appears when the ball goes inside 
the twenty-five-yard line of either goal. In 
the case where it is in the possession of 
the defenders of the goal, they strive very 
hard to retain possession of it, or to sur- 
render it to the other side at some point 
outside of the twenty-five-yard line. Where, 
on the other hand, it is in possession of the 
attacking side, if their running game is not 
working very w^ell, they are tempted to 



EFFECT OF CHANGES IN RULES. 26 1 

resort at once to a drop kick, because by 
the new rule if that kick fails the opponents 
can bring the ball out only to the ten-yard 
line instead of the twenty- five -yard line. 
The fact is at once plain that this really 
means a kick out from behind one's own 
goal, and in addition to this it must be a 
kick, for the defenders of the side cannot run 
the ball out. This, like the rule increasing 
the distance for fouls, is hard on the de- 
fending side, and has already resulted in 
more scoring than formerly. 

The rule limiting mass plays is not suf- 
ficiently strong to curtail them very mate- 
rially, but it will take off some of the extra 
weight which has been used in these plays 
in the past, and in that way will be of ser- 
vice. While no men can get in motion 
before the ball is snapped, the runner is 
joined by others who stand still until the 
ball is actually put in play, so that while 
we shall not see six or seven men at ten or 
fifteen yards back starting in a mass and 



262 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

getting under full headway before the ball 
is snapped, we shall undoubtedly see three 
men bunched and being joined by others 
upon their approaching the line. The or- 
dinary flying wedge at the opening play and 
on fair catches is, however, relegated to the 
background by the rule that the ball must 
be actually kicked, so that we shall see these 
mass plays used only on downs. 

A general survey of the situation leads 
one to believe that the cardinal points of 
the play will remain very much the same ; 
that, in fact, the men who have thoroughly 
learned their positions in the past few years 
will be the best men for the new methods, 
because the new methods are only the cut- 
ting out of the exaggerated faults that have 
come in in the last two years. Coaches 
will find it necessary to have on their teams 
not only runners but kickers, and the edu- 
cation of the rush line cannot be left merely 
to mass plays and pushing, but must con- 
sist of an intimate knowledge of the possi- 



EFFECT OF CHANGES IN RULES. 263 

bilities of a kicking game and the way to 
hold the ground gained by kicks as well as 
how to defend their own side. How to use 
the. kick-off will continue to be a very in- 
teresting problem, as will also whether to 
make a fair catch or not. There certainly 
will be times when it will be more advan- 
tageous for a man not to make a fair catch 
than to make it. Then, too, at what par- 
ticular point to try a drop kick when inside 
the twenty-five-yard line is likely to make 
plenty of study. 

For the early practice and preliminary 
work in the game under these changed con- 
ditions a few suggestions may be service- 
able. 

While it will be quite practicable for a 
team desiring to do so to continue the run- 
ning game to the absolute exclusion of any 
open playing, and while such a team, if well 
drilled and expert in their team work, will 
be almost as dangerous to face as ever, 
there has been enough of a premium placed 



264 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

upon kicking to make it unsafe for a team 
in the first class to ignore that feature. Al- 
most the first thing to do, then, is to provide 
that among the candidates for the team 
there may be enough kicking -halves and 
full-backs to last through the season for 
both sides — " the 'varsity " and " the scrub." 
Something of a kicking game should be 
practised daily, to the exclusion for a time 
of the running play — say for fifteen or twen- 
ty minutes. A team to play a really effec- 
tive kicking game must, in addition to hav- 
ing the punters able to place their kicks 
with accuracy, be equipped with a set of 
signals by means of which the forwards 
may know the direction and approximately 
the distance of the kick. Short kicks and 
putting the men on side will become again 
worthy of consideration. Kicking into touch 
will assume more of the importance it holds 
in the English Rugby Union. Kicking by 
the quarter — such as was done years ago by 
Mason of Harvard, and more lately prac- 



EFFECT OF CHANGES IN RULES. 265 

tised by the University of Pennsylvania 
team and others — will continue to gain in 
importance. All these plays can be used 
in combination with the running game, but 
to develop them up to the level of the play 
will mean hard work. Still another feature 
of the game entailed by this kicking method 
will be the greater necessity for pace among 
the forwards. How the heavy men of our 
present forward lines will stand the more 
rapid progress up and down the field that 
a very lively interchange of kicks, should 
they take place, might mean, is a grave 
question. But it will never do to lighten 
up the line very much so long as the oppo- 
nents have the right to send any crushing 
force of several interferers in front of the 
runner, for heavy men alone can stand the 
frequent meeting of such onslaughts. 

It will be well for the captains and coach- 
ers to once again consider a more general 
passing game — more of the short-passing of 
the English player when tackled, as well as 



266 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

such doubles and long passes as Prince- 
ton showed the possibility of accomplishing 
even under the rules of 1893. A short pass 
for a return kick when the back, catching the 
ball, is not yet tackled, but too hard pressed 
to get in his kick, is worth a reintroduction. 
For all this style of play, and one hopes 
its development will be considerable, life 
and activity are essential, and it is but fair 
to warn the over-zealous captains against 
working their men too hard. It will be even 
a more serious error " to take the edge off" 
a team before its final effort under the new 
rules than under the old. Work enough to 
develop the skill, but not enough to take 
the heart out of the men, will be the only 
way to make a first-class team. The ex- 
aggerated features of summer training will, 
it is to be devoutly hoped, yield to a better 
sense in a few years, and instead of having 
men tired of the play before mid-season, 
we shall find them as eager as ever up to 
the very end. 



ALTERATIONS OF 1896 

The alterations in rules effected by the 
Rules Committee called together by the 
University Athletic Club during the spring 
and summer of 1896 will materially modify 
some of the situations in the play, and it is 
proper to carefully consider just what the 
result of these changes will be. 

The rule first to attract our attention is 
that regarding fair catch. Under this rule 
in its altered form the man about to catch 
the ball will come up under it with the priv- 
ilege of exercising his own judgment as to 
what line of play he shall adopt a-s soon as 
the ball settles in his hands. He may make 
a fair catch and therefrom take a free kick, 
or he may run with the ball. Besides this he 
is protected as effectually as he was in the 
days when obliged to raise his hand to in- 



268 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

dicate that he was going to make the catch. 
Should any one interfere with him, or throw 
him after he has made the catch, he will 
receive in addition to his free kick a dis- 
tance of fifteen yards. In determining what 
his play shall be he must consider that a fair 
catch — or, rather, a free kick from a fair 
catch — is worth more by ten yards than it 
was under the old rule of two years ago, 
because the rule of 1896 provides that the 
opponents must retire ten yards back from 
the catcher's mark. Formerly it was the 
catcher who retired ten yards from his mark, 
or in that neighborhood. This rule ought 
to w^ork well, in that it puts a heavy penalty 
on interfering with the man who has made 
the fair catch, and also adds to the value 
of the catch by this additional distance. 
With all this it does not take away from the 
back the advantage to be gained by quick 
judgment and a good perception of the 
chance for a run. 

To pass on to the next alteration ip the 



ALTERATIONS OF 1896. 269 

rules. It is one which was practically 
adopted last year — viz.: that when there is 
a fumble in the scrimmage any player may 
drop upon the ball ; that is, on a fumble 
in the scrimmage no man is " off-side." 

The next alteration comes in the line of 
the umpire and referee. All sorts of jDlans 
have been tried to insure satisfactory rulings 
in our matches, and it seems to be the con- 
sensus of opinion, as indicated by the votes 
of the representatives forming the Rules 
Committee, that by distributing the duties 
of the umpire and referee a little more fair- 
ly better results will be obtained. The um- 
pire has, it is true, had of late 3'ears a great 
deal to do, and only the best men, and per- 
haps the lucky men, have come off with 
anything more than a remnant of their rep- 
utations. The referees have always es- 
caped because their duties were not nearly 
so arduous. In order to even this up, and 
accomplish more with the same number of 
men, it has been determined that the referee 



270 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

shall act as judge of whether the ball is 
fairly put in play, assuming at the same 
time the responsibility for seeing that the 
snapper-back is not interfered with, nor the 
ball touched while he is endeavoring to 
put it in play or holding it on the ground 
for that purpose. The referee is also 
obliged to judge whether the ball is passed 
forward, and, finally, whether the quarter- 
back runs with it. This leaves the umpire 
free to watch the line, and to give his atten- 
tion to unfair tactics, off-side, and holding. 
The next rule altered is that regarding 
the runner being fairly held. For a long 
time the words "fairly held" have done 
duty, and pretty satisfactory duty too ; but 
in the last season there have been some 
questions raised as to what fairly held 
meant, and the rule has, therefore, been ex- 
panded by the use of the words " the move- 
ment of the ball stopped." This means 
evidently that the runner must be tackled 
and brought to a standstill, and at the same 



ALTERATIONS OF 1 896. 27 I 

time the ball so held that he cannot imme- 
diately pass it. Practically, however, this 
has always been the rule. 

The next alteration in the rules is in that 
regarding scrimmage, and this now enacts 
that the opponents must not only refrain 
from touching the ball when it is being put 
in play in the scrimmage, but also that they 
must not push or jostle the snap- back. 
This had become a very necessary rule, for 
there was a great deal of interference with 
the centre man, and the tendency seemed 
to be on the increase ; nor are the oppo- 
nents allowed to drag men off-side, or do 
anything to delay putting the ball in play. 

Another rule which has been necessarily 
expanded in an explanatory way is that re- 
garding a kick, and what "fair and equal 
chance of possession " means. This has 
been brought about by the tendency towards 
quarter -back kicking and general short 
kicking. A quarter -back has sometimes 
kicked the ball not alone on a line with 



272 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

himself, but even slightly backward, in order 
to save his side from surrendering posses- 
sion of it to the opponents on the last down. 
Such a kick has usually been properly ruled 
upon by the referee or umpire as not giving 
the opponents fair and equal chance, but 
misunderstandings have not been unheard 
of, and the new rule is a good one and 
makes it quite clear. The kick must be 
past the line of scrimmage ; that is, it 
must go beyond an imaginary line passing 
through the spot where the ball was down, 
and drawn at right angles to the side-line, 
in order to be regarded as giving the oppo- 
nents fair and equal chance of possession. 

Still another rule has been altered which 
deals with a similar case. It is that re- 
garding a kick by the snap-back. It has 
always been the privilege of the snap-back, 
if he so desired, to kick the ball forward 
instead of snapping it back. This was 
another method of putting it in play. But 
some discussion has arisen as to how far he 



ALTERATIONS OF 1896. 273 

must kick it, and what the privileges of him- 
self and his side are in the matter of pick- 
ing up the ball after such a kick. The 
doubt has been set at rest by enacting a 
rule that if the snap-back kick the ball it 
must go at least ten 5'ards into the oppo- 
nents' territory unless stopped by an oppo- 
nent. This will probably mean the practi- 
cal elimination of snap-back kicks, although 
there is a chance, when a careless opponent 
does not come up at the moment the ball is 
down, for a lively snap-back to kick the ball 
ahead, as of old. 

The rule which, next to that of fair catch, 
has always been of the greatest importance, 
and has aroused the most discussion, is 
that of the scrimmage and the formations 
admitted. A number of years ago the in- 
troduction of momentum plays brought a 
new element into the game, and one wdiich 
for a time seemed likely to add to the in- 
terest and the skill. Unfortunately the ten- 
dency grew too rapidly, and with this growth 

iS 



274 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

came unexpected and unwelcome complica- 
tions in the way of injuries and close " bat- 
tering-ram" plays. Such an impression did 
this make that the public arose and insisted 
upon the elimination of the momentum play. 
The public here spoken of was not the 
general public alone, but a great many of 
the old football-players, and some even of 
the modern school. What the result of an 
argument between the two parties might 
have been if the debate had been decided 
on its merits one cannot say ; but at any 
rate the first attempt of the Rules Com- 
mittee some two years ago was directed 
towards the elimination of both mass and 
momentum plays. Last year, owing to a 
split in the ranks, there were two different 
sets of rules, and under one set some mo- 
mentum plays were admissible. This year 
the momentum play has been absolutely ex- 
tirpated by the passage of a rule forbidding 
any one to take more than one step in ad- 
vance before the ball is put in play. One 



ALTERATIONS OF 1896. 275 

man of the side may, however, be running 
towards his own goal if he so elect when 
the ball is put in play. This players will 
recognize at once as admitting of quick 
change of apparent intention from a sup- 
posed running formation into that for a 
kick. With this the only exception and 
with such a ruling against starting it is 
impossible for momentum plays to begin 
again. 

Next as to mass plays. We find these 
not legislated against with anything like the 
severity directed against the momentum 
play. A mass play is still possible, akhough 
by the new rule it will be more difficult to 
make very heavy mass plays with men 
bunched closely in the centre. It will not 
be impossible to get men into formation after 
the ball is put in play so that small mass 
plays can be attempted all along the line. 
But five men cannot bunch directly behind 
the quarter and all push together through 
or over the centre. The rule provides that 



276 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

five men shall be on the line of the scrim- 
mage, and that, if five men besides the quar- 
ter go back, two of these shall be either five 
yards or more back of the line of scrimmage, 
or else shall occupy positions outside what 
is known as the tackle position. It will be 
seen by the ruling that any man in the line 
may be dropped back so long as five men 
continue in the line, and the five who drop 
back conform to the requirements of the 
rule as to the positions they assume. 

To sum up briefly the effect of these al- 
terations upon the play itself, one may say, 
with a fair measure of prophetic vision : 

First. That the putting the ball in play 
during the season of 1896 will be cleaner 
and more free from the disagreeable features 
of scrapping in the line than ever before. 

Second. That no momentum plays will 
be seen. 

Third. That mass plays will be made, 
more or less, and that they will be put 



ALTERATIONS OF 1 896. 277 

against the tackle position witli probably the 
greatest vigor as well as the most likely- 
chance of success. 

Finally, that all kicking, and especially 
quarter-back kicking, will be indulged in with 
greater freedom, and that general " on side " 
and short kicks will be used when the side 
finds it difficult to gain ground with their 
running game. 

To the captains it can be said that no 
study will prove more profitable in the way 
of developing a team than that of quick 
small mass formations, made effective by 
double passes or sudden changes of direc- 
tion. While, for a kicking game, accuracy, 
both in distance and direction, coupled with 
the ability to kick while on the run, ought 
to be a feature of the full-back's play more 
than ever before. 



RECORDS SINCE THE INTRODUCTION 
OF RUGBY GAME. 



HARVARD-YALE. 

1876. Yale, I goal ; Harvard, 2 touch-downs. 

1877. No game, 

1878. Y'ale, I goal ; Harvard, o. 

1879. Yale, 2 safeties ; Harvard, 4 safeties. 

1880. Yale, I goal, i touch-down ; Harvard, o. 

1 88 1. Yale, o ; Harvard, 4 safeties. 

1882. Yale, I goal, 3 touch-downs ; Harvard, 2 

safeties. 

1883. Yale, 4 goals ; Harvard, i touch-down, i 

safety. 

1884. Yale, 6 goals, 4 touch-downs ; Harvard, o. 

1885. No game. 

1886. Yale, 5 goals ; Harvard, i touch-down. 

1887. Yale, 3 goals, i safety ; Harvard, i goal. 
18S8. No game. 

1889. Yale, I goal ; Harvard, o. 

1890. Harvard, 2 goals ; Yale, i goal. 



RECORDS OF RUGBY GAME. 279 

1891. Yale, I goal, i touch-down ; Harvard, o. 

1892. Yale, I goal ; Harvard, o. 

1893. Yale, I goal ; Harvard, o. 

1894. Yale, 12 ; Harvard, 4. 

1895. No game. 

HARVARD-PRINCETON. 

1876. No game, 

1877. Harvard, i goal, i touch-down ; Princeton, 

I touch-down. 

1878. Princeton, i touch-down ; Harvard, o. 

1879. Princeton, i goal, i safety ; Harvard, 5 safe- 

ties. 

1880. Princeton, 2 goals, 2 touch-downs, 6 safeties ; 

Harvard, i goal, i touch-down, 4 safeties. 

1881. Princeton, i safety ; Harvard, i safety. 

1882. Harvard, i goal, i touch-down ; Princeton, 

I goal. 

1883. Princeton, 26 points ; Harvard, 7 points. 

1884. Princeton, 34 points ; Harvard, 6 points. 

1885. No game. 

1 886. Princeton, 12 points ; Harvard, o. 

1887. Harvard, 12 points ; Princeton, o. 
1S88. Princeton, 18 points; Harvard, 6 points. 

1889. Princeton, 41 points ; Harvard, 15 points. 

1890. No game, 

1 89 1. No game. 



28o AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

1892. No game. 

1893. No game. 

1894. No game. 

1895. Princeton, 12 ; Harvard, 4. 

PRINCETON-YALE. 

1876. Yale, 2 goals ; Princeton, o. 

1877. Yale, 2 touch-downs; Princeton, o. 

1878. Princeton, i goal ; Yale, o. 

1879. Yale, 2 safeties ; Princeton, 5 safeties. 

1880. Yale, 5 safeties ; Princeton, 11 safeties. 

1881. Yale, o ; Princeton, o. 

1882. Yale, 2 goals, i safety ; Princeton, i goal, i 

safety. 

1883. Yale, I goal ; Princeton, o. 

1884. Yale, I goal ; Princeton, i touch-down.* 

1885. Princeton, i goal from touch-down ; Yale, i 

goal from field. 

1886. Yale, I touch-down ; Princeton, o.* 

1887. Yale, 2 goals ; Princeton, o. 

1888. Yale, 2 goals ; Princeton, o. 

1889. Princeton, i goal, i touch-down ; Yale, o. 

1890. Yale, 32 points ; Princeton, o. 

1891. Yale, 19 points, 2 goals, 2 touch-downs ; 

Princeton, o. 

1892. Yale, 12 points, 2 goals ; Princeton, o. 

* Game unfinished. 



RECORDS OF RUGBY GAME. 251 

1593. Princeton, 6 points, i goal ; Yale, o. 

1894. Yale, 24 ; Princeton, o, 

1895. Yale, 20 ; Princeton, 10. 

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLYANIA-WESLEYAN. 

1884, Univ. of Pa., 14 points ; Wesleyan, 12 points. 

1885, Univ. of Pa., 18 points ; ^Vesleyan, 25 points. 

1886, Univ. of Pa., 14 points ; Wesleyan, o. 
18S7. Univ. of Pa., 4 points ; Wesleyan, 10. 

188S. Univ. of Pa., 18 points; Wesleyan, 6 points. 

1889. Univ. of Pa., 2 points; Wesleyan, 10 points. 

1890. Univ. of Pa., 16 points ; Wesleyan, 10 points. 

1 891. Univ. of Pa,, 18 points ; Wesleyan, 10 points. 

1892. Univ. of Pa., 34 points ; Wesleyan, o. 

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA-HARVARD. 

1883. Univ. of Pa., o; Harvard, 4. 

1884. Univ. of Pa., 4 ; Harvard, o. 

1885. Did not play. 

1886. Univ. of Pa., o ;• Harvard, 28. 
1889. Univ. of Pa., o; Harvard, 35. 

1893. Univ. of Pa., 4 ; Harvard, 26. 

1594. Univ. of Pa., iS ; Harvard, 4. 
1895. Univ. of Pa., 17; Harvard, 14. 

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA-YALE. 

1879, Univ. of Pa., o ; Yale, 3 goals, 5 touch-downs. 

1880. Univ. of Pa., o ; Yale, 8 goals, i touch-down. 



252 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

1885. Univ. of Pa., i goal, 2 safeties ; Yale, 4 goals, 

7 touch-downs. 
t886. Univ. of Pa., o ; Yale, 8 goals, 7 touch-downs. 

1887. Univ. of Pa., i safety ; Yale, 6 goals, 3 touch- 

downs. 

1888. Univ. of Pa., o ; Yale, 54 points. 

1889. Univ. of Pa., 10 points; Yale, 20 points. 

1890. Univ. of Pa., o ; Yale, 60 points. 

1891. Univ. of Pa., o ; Yale, 48 points. 

1892. Univ. of Pa., o ; Yale, 28 points. 

1893. Univ. of Pa., 6 points ; Yale, 14 points. 

1894. No game. 

1895. No game. 

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA-PRINCETON. 

1876. Univ. of Pa., o; Princeton, 6. 

1878. Univ. of Pa., o ; Princeton, 2 goals, 4 touch- 

downs. 

1879. Univ. of Pa., 11 safeties ; Princeton, 6 goals, 

4 touch-downs. 

1880. Univ. of Pa., I safety ; Princeton, i goal, 3 

safeties. 

1881. Univ. of Pa., 4 safeties ; Princeton, 4 goals, 6 

touch-downs. 

1882. Univ. of Pa., o ; Princeton, 10 goals, 4 touch- 

downs. 

1883. Univ. of Pa., 6 points ; Princeton, 39 points. 

1884. Univ. of Pa., o; Princeton, 30 points. 



RECORDS OF RUGBY GAME. 283 

1SS5. Univ. of Pa., o ; Princeton, 57 iX)ints. 
18S6. Univ. of Pa., 6 points ; Princeton, 28 points. 

1887. Univ. of Pa., o ; Princeton, 96 points. 

1888. Univ. of Pa., o ; Princeton, 4 points. 

1889. Univ. of Pa., 4 points ; Princeton, 72 points. 
1S90. Univ. of Pa., o ; Princeton, 6 points, 

1891. Univ. of Pa., o ; Princeton, 24 points. 

1892. Univ. of Pa., 6 points ; Princeton, 4 points. 

1893. Univ. of Pa., o ; Princeton, 4 points. 

1894. Univ. of Pa., 12; Princeton, o. 

1895. No game. 



HARVARD-CORNELL. 



1891. Harvard, 77 

1892. Harvard, 20 

1893. Harvard, 34 

1894. Harvard, 22 

1895. Harvard, 25 



Cornell, o. 
Cornell, 14. 
Cornell, o. 
Cornell, 12. 
Cornell, o. 



PRINCETON-CORNELL. 

1S93. Princeton, 46 ; Cornell, O. 

1894. Princeton, 12 ; Cornell, 4. 

1895. Princeton, 6'; Cornell, o. 

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA-CORNELL. 

1893. Univ. of Pa., 50; Cornell, o, 

1894. Univ. of Pa., 6 ; Cornell, o. 

1895. Univ. of Pa., 46 ; Cornell, 2. 



A PR1R/1ER OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL 



By W. H. Lewis. Illustrated from 
Instantaneous Photographs and with 
Diagrams. i6mo. {In Press.) 

Mr. Lewis, an old Harvard football centre- 
rush has put together in this book the result 
of his experiences in practical football. The 
work, therefore, is not so much a treatise on 
the game as a series of practical suggestions 
to be used by captains in teaching their men 
and coaching their teams. The book is di- 
vided respectively into the " individual," and 
" team " play. The part on the " individual " 
discusses, first, the individual plays, such as 
passing, kicking, running, falling on the ball 
and so on, and then the work of the individual 
players themselves. The second part discuss- 
es, first, offensive and then defensive team 
play. It will be seen, therefore, that the book 
is unique of its kind, and in its small compass 
v;ill be eminently suited for use from day to 
day in the field or during the discussion after 
practice. 

PuMislied by HARPER k BROTHERS, New York. 

^^^ For sale by all booksellers, or tvill be sent by the 
publishers, postage prepaid, on receipt of price. 



FOOTBALL FACTS AND FIGURES. 



Compiled by Walter Camp. Post 8vo, 
Ornamental Paper Covers. {Just 
Ready. ) 

STATISTICS COLLECTED BY 

The Hon. JAMES W. ALEXANDER, of the Equi- 
table Life Assurance Company. 

The Rev. JOSEPH H. TWICHELL, of the Yale 
Corporation. 

The Hon. HENRY E. HOWLAND, of the New 
Yorl< Bar. 

Walter Camp. 

The Rev. ENDICOTT PEABODY, of Groton 

School. 
ROBERT BACON, of the Harvard Board of 

Overseers. 

This volume embodies the results of careful 
and painstal^ing inquiries as to the effects, 
physical and otherwise, of football, upon those 
taking part in the game. Information and 
statistics have been gathered from those best 
qualified to supply them — expert and celebrated 
players, members of the faculties of our colleges, 
etc. — and the work throws a flood of light upon 
a much-discussed subject. 



PUBLISHED BY 

HARPER & BROTHERS, New York 

JO®"" The above work is for sale by all booksellers, or 
will be sent by the publishers, postage prepaid, to any 
part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, on re- 
ceipt of the price. 



